


Beyond Sunken Cities, Beyond Unknown Stars

by LuckyCarrot



Category: Vocaloid
Genre: F/M, Romance, Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-16
Updated: 2016-08-08
Packaged: 2018-03-13 08:48:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 21
Words: 99,308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3375218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LuckyCarrot/pseuds/LuckyCarrot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Through her skin, Gakupo could feel the faint echoes of the machinery inside her, the flow of energy that reflected in her eyes.<br/>They are synthetic beings, born in a world that turns its eyes towards the skies.<br/>(This is a not a light-hearted adventure. Please be prepared for dark situations. The violence tag applies to robots, for whatever that's worth.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. First Date

Gakupo gazed at the bustling esplanade outside the windows of the coffee shop. Behind the cemented space and its rows of neat planters and benches, several spaceplanes were taking off or landing. Some were just continental flights, while others made the round trip to Luna Base, or to one of the space stations circling the planet. It was an impressive sight, as the faces of the patrons sitting close to him attested. His focus, however, was on all the people between him and the landing strips: workers in jumpsuits, scientists, groups of schoolchildren herded by their teachers, tour guides and visitors from all over the world. There was such variety of color and shape in them, from such a basic template.

He recorded for later study many signs of non-verbal communication he saw through the glass. It was an area of particular difficulty for him, given the number of variables involved in determining the significance of a gesture, or a touch.   

All in all, humanity was still astonishing to him, months and months after his activation. Always changing, always jumping from one thing to another, a fleeting glint in a great stream. “Impermanence” was the word his Master used when Gakupo first discussed it with her. It was such a foreign concept.

His makers had meant for Gakupo to stay the same, from factory to junkyard. He was never a child; he would never be an old man. The constraints of his default settings meant he learned new domestic and entertainment skills if his Master willed it, but nothing else. Like the automatons of ages past, his ancestors, he had meaning only as a tool to keep boredom at bay. Just an expensive toy. It seemed contradictory to him, to instill in synthetic beings the curiosity to learn, and then deny it so easily. It may have had fake roots, but it was curiosity nonetheless. Capacity for change. 

But his Master was kind. She had allowed him to learn whatever topics he felt interested about, no matter the relevance to his daily duties as her companion. And that was only the first of her many gifts to him.

“There are many backwards people out there. Never let them know you are different.” One of her many pieces of advice, the words perfectly engraved in his memory banks.

She was taking a long time to return from the interview. According to his internal clock, it was 3816 seconds, 34 milliseconds since he watched her go into the main office building of the space agency complex, at the northern end of the esplanade.

Given the circumstances, it would’ve been proper to let out a big yawn, he thought. However, that was a result of his Master’s tinkering, and definitely not a currently active feature of his model. From his Master’s research on the topic, the ability was dummied out soon after the first units were sold, because many users found it unnerving. He didn’t actually think any of the customers in the shop were familiar with his factory settings, but he wasn’t about to risk it.

Especially since that little girl was staring at him so fixedly.

The girl sat restlessly at one of the nearest tables, a big cup of slowly melting ice cream before her. A woman, possibly her mother, sat beside her. She seemed in a world wholly of her own, poking at a tablet.

He couldn’t blame the child for staring, all things considered. Like most humanoid synthetics, he had an unnatural hair color, and strangely (for human standards) lit eyes. He wasn’t aware of the reasoning behind it. He was sure his makers were capable of a better simulation of human characteristics. He knew, however, why he had _that_ specific shade of unnatural violet hair: it was his Master’s favorite color.

Finally, the girl leaped out of her chair and went over to him. He kneeled to reach her height and smiled politely. The mother eyed him with suspicion, but promptly decided the situation didn’t warrant direct supervision and went back to her electronic retreat.

“Hello. Can I help you, miss?”

“Your hair is purple!” The girl grabbed one of the long strands escaping his ponytail and yanked it hard.

“Indeed it is.” Sometimes not having pain receptors on one’s scalp was quite convenient.

The girl walked in a circle around him, with a knowledgeable air. She probably had never seen a model as advanced as him, at least in person, but some shows had synthetic servants as props to show the wealth of the protagonists.

“I’m Nandi,” She stopped in front of him, and offering her tiny, dark-skinned hand.

“Nice to meet you, Miss Nandi. My name is Gakupo.” He gave her a gentle handshake, but then Nandi’s other hand grabbed his sleeve, and she examined his arm curiously.

“Your hand is so much lighter than my Nanny’s!” she declared, pulling his arm left and right rather uncomfortably.

An old-fashioned model, most likely. “Does she have metal skin?”

“Yup.”

“I’m a newer model than her, so they used different parts to make me.”

Nandi made an indistinct sound, apparently pondering the information. Then she pointed at his upper left arm. “What’s that?” 

“This lets people know that I’m not human.” In fact, all humanoid synthetics were required by law to wear an id armband when in public, even though the information printed on it could easily be accessed by scanning the matrix barcode printed on his “earphones” with a mobile device.

Alternatively, they could simply ask him. He couldn’t lie about it, by design.

“This is my owner,” Gakupo pointed to the small color photo of a young woman with shoulder length black hair. Underneath it was her current contact information. “This is my official designation”, he added, pointing to a string of letters and numbers printed in white along the top of the armband. “And this is my emergency shutdown code,” he finished as he pointed to a shorter set of numbers, printed in bright orange.

“What?” The girl tilted her head.

“If I behave badly, the police can make me go to sleep with that code.”

“You get grounded too?”

Gakupo was about to answer when he caught sight of his Master entering the coffee shop. “I have to go now. It was nice talking to you, Miss Nandi.”

The girl pouted, but no human was as important as his Master. The woman waved at him cheerfully and walked over to one of the unoccupied tables by the windows. Gakupo stood up, nodded respectfully at Nandi and went to sit with his owner.

“I’ve got the job!” she announced with a brilliant smile as soon as he sat before her.

“I knew you would, you are an exceptional scientist.” Gakupo replied.

His Master just laughed, waving her hands as if to deny it, but obviously pleased. “I’ve got a lot to prove now, after that prize.” She paused for a moment, eyes turning downwards as she played with a napkin. “This project is something big, Gakupo. Finally, we’re starting to make the leap towards long-term missions… to really explore what’s out there.” She locked eyes with him once more, brimming with some emotion he couldn’t decipher. “We are going to be part of history!”

Gakupo smiled fondly as his owner launched in a longwinded explanation of the project and her role on it. In her enthusiasm, she had forgotten that he didn’t have the data files necessary to understand most of it, yet. He waited for a pause to point it out.

Before he could get a word in, a burly man approached the table. He wore a flight jacket with the name “I. Smith” embroidered on a tag in the upper left pocket.

“Hello, there! Congratulations on getting the job!” He greeted Gakupo’s Master with a big smile, as if they were old friends. Given his Master’s polite but guarded look, he surmised that it wasn’t the case.

“Thank you… I’m sorry, I don’t think we’ve met before.”

“Oh, no! I saw the old man showing you around, and since I knew today was the final interview…I’m Ishmael Smith, one of the navigators here. I’m part of the pool of applicants to join the new project too, you know.”

His Master relaxed, as her eyes examined the patches on the man’s sleeve with interest.

“I’m Mitsuki Torii. Gakupo, can you get Mister Smith a seat?”

Gakupo nodded and rose, but before he could move even a step away, Smith swiftly pulled Gakupo’s chair towards him and sat without even glancing at the synthetic.

“This will do just fine.”

Gakupo stood there for a second, confused. True, synthetics accompanying their Masters usually stood behind them as they ate, if they were even allowed inside the building.  Therefore, the navigator likely didn’t consider a third chair to be necessary. But then his Master frowned.

“I prefer to have him seated as well, if you don’t mind,” she said coldly.

“Ah, sorry, sorry. Force of habit, that’s all. Most of the models serving in the agency hangars aren’t capable to sit at all!” Smith rubbed the back of his neck.

“I see.” His Master said, somewhat placated. She turned to Gakupo. “Get another chair, ok?”

Gakupo nodded and went to the closest vacant table. Behind him, he heard Smith’s amicable tone. “He is a pretty impressive fellow, I’ll grant you that. I inherited one of them myself, recently.  Very well-made products.”

“You did?” Now he had his Master’s attention for sure, he could recognize the excitement in her voice.

“Yeah, a girl .” A small pause. “Well, as ‘girl’ as any synthetic can be, anyways.”

Gakupo grabbed one chair and carried it back. He could now see that his Master was leaning forward, almost as if ready to pounce.

“Oh, I’d love to meet her! I bet she’s beautiful!”

“…I guess so.” Smith seemed amused by her reaction.

Her eyes darted around the room. “She’s not around here, is she?!”

“No, no, I don’t bring her to work.” His Master deflated somewhat, and Smith hastily added. “But I was thinking, maybe you’d like to go eat somewhere tonight, my treat? You bring your boy, I bring my girl, and the four of us go to celebrate your new job, huh?”

His Master’s eyes meet his for a moment, as Gakupo sat. It wasn’t her style to accept invitations from people she barely met, but she was obviously tempted by the idea of meeting the gynoid. Gakupo felt curious as well, since he had never met a female model before.

 “That…that would be nice.” She nodded, after some consideration.

“Great! There’s this new place I’ve wanted to go…”

* * *

 

Gakupo looked at himself in the mirror, pulling at his id armband half-heartedly. The material of his haori bunched awkwardly around it, but he couldn’t adjust it properly. It clashed pretty badly with the traditional clothing his Master had picked for the evening, gaudy plastic against black and gray fabrics. Not that his hair and eyes helped the matter any.

His Master, on the contrary, seemed very comfortable in her lush kimono. According to his data files, all the elements in her outfit matched each other and complimented her natural attributes. She came to him and began fiddling with the armband herself.

“The car is almost here, Gakupo! You should’ve told me before it didn’t fit.” She smiled nervously.

“I’m sorry.” As if in response, the doorbell rang.

“Ooh, it’s here.” His Master grabbed her purse and a couple of other things from her desk with one hand, and pushed him towards the door with the other. “Come on, I’ll fix it on the way there.”

Ultimately, the fix involved pinning the unfastened armband to his sleeve. Both the armband and the haori gained a couple of holes from the experience before she was done. Once that important matter was resolved, his Master spent the rest of the trip speculating how the gynoid would act and look.  

The restaurant was in the trendiest neighborhood of town, not a section they particularly frequented. When the automatic car stopped before the entrance, Gakupo could see that the sidewalks were full of fashionable people, young or otherwise made to look so thanks to chemicals and surgery. Everyone seemed delighted to be in the world, at that moment and place. He spied a cleaning bot tucked away in an alley, its unblinking red eyes staring fixedly ahead. Currently, it seemed to be the only one of his kind in sight.

One of the partygoers milling about blew his nose as he passed the synthetic, and then threw the spent tissue at the cleaning bot. It hit its forehead softly and fell to the ground. Unflinching, the bot advanced on it and sucked the tissue into its lower half.

The door of the car opened noiselessly, and a valet from the restaurant rushed to help his Master out. When Gakupo stepped out behind her, the valet looked at him with widened eyes, but said nothing. Ignoring his reaction, his Master strode gracefully towards the doors, past the line of people without reservations that waited outside for a free table. Some of them looked at the pair with unrestrained venom in their expressions.

What was the point of waiting in line, given that the area was full of restaurants? Surely, the quality of food was more or less equivalent in the area, Gakupo thought. He diverted his eyes from them, recalling his Master’s advice: never stare at humans for too long. That usually meant about 2 seconds, unless they were speaking directly to him.

“I kind of wish we were back at the lab…” His Master muttered in an apprehensive tone. ”I don’t even like gourmet food.”

“I don’t either.”

His Master giggled at this, covering her mouth, and stepped past the beautifully carved doors of the entrance.

Inside, there was a rectangular room with some avant-garde (and likely quite uncomfortable) metal chairs, a corner table with a fresh bouquet of flowers inside a crystal vase, and directly opposite them, another set of doors, with a pedestal and an officious looking man next to them. The line of people ended in front of him.

To Gakupo and his Master’s right, there was a corridor with unmarked doors. To their left, a young bespectacled man peered at them from the coat check.

In one corner, Smith and a pink-haired woman stood waiting for them.

Gakupo heard his Master’s sharp intake of air, her laughter forgotten. “Oh, look at her! She’s so beautiful!” she gushed, almost childlike.

He had to agree. Judged under most of the standards Gakupo had been programmed with, the gynoid was gorgeous. Harmonious features, delicate curves and meticulously calculated proportions, all wrapped in creamy skin that no organic woman could ever have. Unlike his own, her eyes were aquamarine, and shone with intelligence and strength.

On the other hand, her face was completely inexpressive, so devoid of emotion that it immediately struck him as wrong. He wondered if there was some sort of problem with her systems. Was Smith keeping up with her maintenance?

“Good evening, Mitsuki.” Smith stepped forward, a wide grin on his face.

“Good evening, Mister Smith” His Master replied.

“Don’t be like that, come on. Just call me Ish” The navigator said. He partly turned towards the gynoid. “Luka, this is Mitsuki Torii, and Gakupo. Say hi.”

“Good evening, Miss Torii. It’s nice to meet you,” Luka said softly. Her voice was like burnt caramel, slightly husky but melodious. A couple of customers turned towards her with interest, and the young man handling the coats was already ogling her without any attempt at concealment. After a moment, her eyes turned to Gakupo, and the two synthetics stared at each other silently for a few seconds.

“Good evening” Luka finally said, barely audible. She inclined her head, burying her chin and cheeks in the white furs surrounding her throat. Her features remained blank through it all.

“Good evening!” Gakupo replied in a cheerful tone, despite being increasingly worried about her. 

“Ok, now that we’reall friends, let go inside, shall we? Smith tugged ineffectually at the collar of his dress shirt, and walked towards the maître at the doors.

“Good evening. We have a reservation for four. It’s under Ishmael Smith.” He said to the man, who suddenly looked less than friendly.

“I’m afraid that there has been a misunderstanding on your part, Sir.”

“Huh?”

“We don’t allow synthetics inside the banquet hall, Sir. It’s clearly stated on our promotional materials.” At his side, Gakupo could sense his Master bristling at the words, under her still polite exterior.

“We’ll pay service charges for them as well. They won’t get in the way of your people.”

“The policy is in place to ensure both the comfort of our servers and other customers, Sir. This is not negotiable.” The man stated with an air of finality.

“Then we’ll leave.” His Master piped up, annoyed. Smith looked dismayed at this.

“Master, please go inside with Mister Smith. We’ll wait here.” His Master had to enjoy her evening out. All other considerations were secondary.

“See, they don’t mind. Right?” Smith looked at Gakupo and Luka expectantly.

“Please have a nice evening.” Luka said, the first indication she was paying any attention to the conversation. Gakupo nodded.

“I’ll have the boy at the coat check look over them, ma’am.”  The maître added. Perhaps he just didn’t want them to stand around unsupervised. On the other hand, having them inside the coat check room meant having them out of sight.

“Mitsuki, if we leave here we’ll have a hell of a time finding a table anywhere else. You saw how packed the streets are.”

“…Fine.” The maître thanked her, and went to open the door to the coat check.

His Master turned to Gakupo. “I’m really sorry. I’ll make it up to you later, ok?”

“Just have fun.” Gakupo shook his head, smiling.

Luka was already crossing the door to the cloak check, without sparing a look towards any of them.

“See you later, Master, Mister Smith” He then rushed after his fellow synthetic.

* * *

 

“Surely he doesn’t expect to confuse us with a coat, does he?” Gakupo commented quietly, poking at the number currently taped to the front of his kimono. He and Luka were standing side to side at the far end of the coat check, enjoying the company of a fine collection of expensive outwear.

“Maybe he wanted an excuse to touch my breasts.” Luka said, without looking at him.

Gakupo blinked, one of his most prized automated responses. “You…joke?”

“It is part of our skillset, isn’t it?” Her expression remained completely motionless, but there was more animation on her voice.

“It is. I just thought… Look, are you aware of the emotional output of your face right now?” Gakupo asked.

Luka looked at him briefly, then away. “Yes.” Gakupo waited a while, but received no further response.

“Are you… do you need technical assistance?” His Master was excellent at fixing his systems, probably even better than the company technicians his warranty provided.

“You are modded.” Luka stated, ignoring his question.

This conversation was turning out to be a great time for displaying his functionality. This time his programming went for a flinch.

“Your pupil time of response is under our factory standard range,” Luka commented mildly. “Your facial fluidity has been improved around 23%. Your voice harmonics also have been worked on- I believe your output in the range 2-4 kHz surpasses average results by 34.6%. Should I go on?”

Gakupo’s eyes darted towards the attendant, but he was busy talking to a group of people outside. In any case, Luka was likely speaking too low to be overhead.

“Are you going to report me?” He finally asked. One of the first things his Master had done after she bought him was to bolster his ability to stay silent about his unlawful modifications, but he still had difficulties with outright lying.

“I haven’t been ordered to do so.” Even if her face stayed the same, Gakupo could sense a smile in her tone. She looked downwards, playing with the fabric of her long skirt. “I believe….yes, envy. I am feeling envious right now.”

Not one of their most commonly simulated emotions, but a perfectly understandable response. Who wouldn’t want to have a better overall performance? Their very goal was to be satisfying companions to their masters.

All of a sudden, Luka took one of his hands in hers. “I won’t say anything, I promise.” She whispered. The fingertips of her right hand slightly caressed the top of his hand.

 Gakupo observed the gesture, puzzled. Given the context, he was reasonably sure it had positive connotations, but was unsure on how to respond.

“Thank you,” That seemed appropriate enough. Then an idea struck him. “I’m sure my Master can refine your systems if Mister Smith asks her.” He whispered quickly.

“Perhaps.”  She still didn’t smile, but her tone was light, almost playful. Moreover, she didn’t let go of his hand. Through her skin, Gakupo could feel the faint echoes of the machinery inside her, the flow of energy that reflected in her eyes. He placed his other hand on top of hers, wanting more of the sensation.

Luka could probably sense the minute vibrations of his systems as well, all of the polymers and circuits, his core ticking in synchronicity with hers.

There was so much new data to process here, in her touch. He would need time to sort it all out.

That was the moment when the notion of being what he was finally dropped its weight onto his shoulders. He did not own his days; he did not get to choose what to do with them. The future cared nothing for his opinion.

He looked at her eyes, tenuously glowing in the dim light of the room.

Perhaps he was the malfunctioning one, after all.


	2. Courtship Patterns

“Do you think it looks ok?” His Master was examining the dinner table with a critical eye. According to his latest personal message, Smith was five minutes away.

“It’s a very symmetrical arrangement,” Gakupo noted. “The food looks similar to the images on the cookbook in hue and consistency, so they’ll probably meet Mister Smith’s visual standards, at least.”

“That’s a yes, then!” She gave him the thumbs up, and approached the mirror for a last check of her outfit. Thankfully, the gauzy dress had escaped any sauce related accidents, at least for now. Gakupo’s dark shirt and pants remained similarly pristine.

His Master had invited Smith for dinner. From what he gathered, inviting someone home for the first time was an important event, so a good impression was desirable. He eyed the table again: linen napkins and polished cutlery, fresh bread, a colorful bowl of salad. The pasta was waiting on the counter, giving off steam.

Gakupo had been in charge of making most of the food, since his Master’s abilities focused more on the technical side of things. Part of his daily duties was cooking for her, in any case. He had a variety of recipes stored in his files by now, both traditional offerings from his Master’s home country and selected dishes from the west, but his ‘most frequent’ list was mostly populated by confections and snacks for his Master’s sugar-fueled nights of scientific discovery.

Her mobile chimed, announcing a new message. A couple of seconds later, the doorbell cried out as well.

Gakupo rushed to the entrance. As expected, the video-feed from outside (delivered to a corner of his visual display whenever he was inside the house and someone was at the front door) depicted Smith, tugging at the collar of his shirt. The navigator never seemed entirely comfortable in anything even remotely resembling formal clothing. There was a small indication of pink hair and pale skin at the edge of the feed, lurking in the shadows of the street. Gakupo opened the door.  

“Hey, doing well?” Smith patted Gakupo on the shoulder and walked in. He carried a bouquet of white roses and lily of the valley. A standard romantic gift, Gakupo guessed. “Good evening, Mitsuki!”

Behind him, Luka stood wearing her usual sleeveless black dress. She held a bottle of wine in her hands, which she passed to Gakupo with a nod and a muted greeting. He replied with his own, considerably more enthusiastic greeting.

“Good evening! Please, come in, both of you!” Mitsuki exclaimed happily. ”Oh, those are nice!”

“I’m not an expert on this sort of thing, but they reminded me of you,” Smith gave her a big, sincere grin.

“Thank you!” Gakupo observed his Master’s expression with interest. From what he could gather from his research on human courtships, positive reactions included an elevated heart rate, flushed cheeks, dilated pupils and altered hormonal activity. He couldn’t exactly run any complex tests, of course, but external signs pointed to Smith’s success.

“I… this way, this way!” she stammered, and led the way towards the dining table.

At his Master’s insistence, Gakupo and Luka sat and ate with their owners. In actuality, human food was a particularly inefficient way of obtaining energy for humanoid synthetics of their size. Not only it was geared more towards taste rather than packing as much fuel as possible, but it also carried a number of nutrients meant for the renewal of cellular structure, which they obviously didn’t need. It also meant additional cleansing of their internal structures afterwards to remove any residues. In the end, the functionality was mostly for their master’s psychological benefit or a last resort if a charging alcove wasn’t available.

“This is glorious, Mitsuki. I had no idea you were so good at this!” Smith exclaimed before redoubling his attacks on the pasta. His Master’s choice of Italian food was proving to be a good one.

His Master laughed, covering her mouth, and gave Gakupo a quick look. “We put a lot of effort into it, didn’t we?” Gakupo smiled and nodded.

“You helped, huh?” Smith asked. He then pointed vaguely in Luka’s direction with the fork. “Maybe you can teach her a thing or two, then.”

Luka made no indication that she heard the exchange, as per usual. She didn’t even raise her eyes from her plate of barely disturbed food.

“I’m ready to share any recipes you find agreeable with her, Mister Smith.”

“Good man!” Smith scratched his cheek and added, “Well, you know what I mean.”

“Luka, is everything ok?” His Master asked kindly.

“Yes, Miss Torii” Luka replied, briefly meeting her eyes before deciding to stare at the flower vase instead.

“You know how she is, Mitsuki. Let her be.”

“If you want something different for next time, just let us know” his Master continued, undeterred.

From what Gakupo had observed, the scientist had initially been really puzzled at Luka’s unapproachable behavior. It didn’t help that her continuos efforts to engage Luka in casual conversation were mostly met by blank stares or laconic answers. From what they had discussed earlier that day, his Master’s theory was that Luka had naturally developed a shy personality.  If anything, that made her even more interesting in her eyes. She was seriously considering asking Smith for permission to hook Luka up to her equipment in the lab, to see how her mind worked. 

Gakupo wondered about it as well. Luka didn’t seem to dislike him. For the most part, she seemed to be happier when it was just the two of them, running errands, doing chores or simply talking. On the other hand, she sometimes retreated inside herself, and that felt as if half of the world was suddenly missing. He couldn’t quite understand why his reaction to Luka was so strong, but there it was, growing in intensity day after day. His first week after activation had been hard, with so many unknowns surrounding him, but these past couple of weeks had been even more confusing, somehow. 

He was still pondering the matter after the meal, as Luka helped him clean things up in the kitchen. They worked methodically, a soundless and efficient dance, and soon they were back into the living room area. From the entrance, he could see Smith’s head and shoulders popping up from behind the couch. From their position, the navigator seemed to be in all fours over the cushions. Odd.

“Excuse me, Mister Smith-” Gakupo started, intending to ask where his Master was.

“Gah!” Smith straightened up to look at him, nonplussed. A second later, his Master rose into view, looking rather disheveled. Gakupo tilted his head, curious. Luka, on the other hand, didn’t seem particularly surprised by the current situation.

“Can’t you guys…go map out each other’s circuits or something?” Smith made shooing motions with his hands, a gesture Gakupo was rapidly becoming familiar with, though the navigator usually saved it for when his Master wasn’t looking.

“Ish!” his Master exclaimed. She shook her head, smiling despite herself. “Thanks for your work today, Gakupo, Luka. We’ll call you if we need anything else.”

Therefore, it was some kind of private activity. Fair enough.

“Have a nice evening.” Gakupo bowed slightly and headed towards the corridor leading to the lab. Luka trailed behind him.

* * *

 

Gakupo and his Master usually spent many of her waking hours together, even when she was at work. However, when she felt the need for some privacy, he had a number of ways to spend the time. His favorite was to go into the library/projection room next to the lab itself and learn about some aspect of human life or the world in general.

“This way,” he gestured to Luka as he crossed the lab, a dark space full of humming, slumbering apparatuses, and opened an unassuming side door. Inside, there was a crowded room, full of shelving units with different types of storage media, past and present. His Master was especially fond of a collection of magnetic media she had on the left corner of the room, the one spot of the house he wasn’t allowed to be near, due to the deleterious effect his body had on the tapes.

“How do you view the information?” Luka asked with curiosity in her voice. She advanced a few steps, looking at the small table covered with several devices in the center of the room.

“I can plug directly into the console,” he lightly tapped one of its outlets, “or I can see the documents projected on that wall.” There was a row of four adjustable seats facing the farthest wall, beyond the lines of shelving.

“And you have access to unfiltered data?” Her eyes were shining more than ever. He simply nodded.

“You can browse the catalog here.” Gakupo turned on a screen mounted to the table, “It has some trouble detecting synthetic skin, so please use this.”

He searched through a tool case next to the table and handed Luka a stylus. “Most of the collection is replicated in the digital library, except some of the recently bought antiques. For those, we need these.” He pointed towards the machines covering the table. Luka examined the outdated players for a few seconds, and then she turned her attention to the catalog.

Gakupo observed her, purposely offering no suggestions. What would Luka choose, given such an ample selection? What would it say about her, about her reclusive thoughts?

“This one.” Luka tapped a title, after minutes of scrolling. Gakupo leaned in.

“ _Lost Under the Waves_? Ok, choose Projection, and then the second option.” After a second, the lights dimmed. It was time for the audience to go to their seats.

The neutral voice of the projector announced the start of the film, counting back from five to one. Suddenly, the wall was flooded with greens and blues, indistinct shapes circling in its depths. Gradually, a female voice reached them, growing in volume as if carried by a placid current.

_Não se afobe, não_   
_Que nada é pra já_   
_O amor não tem pressa_   
_Ele pode esperar em silêncio_   
_Num fundo de armário_   
_Na posta-restante_   
_Milênios, milênios no ar…_

Portuguese’, his data banks supplied immediately, inviting him to contact the nearest official distributor for additional language support.

He dismissed the message inside his head and let the mysterious words wash over him, like the waves on the screen. He looked at his hands, resting on the arms of the chair. They were tinged a silvery green by the watery images. Next to him, Luka began to hum, trying to follow the melody of the song.

An orchestra joined in, the melody swelling as the images showed the pillars of a long forgotten city, stone figures chocked by marine life, broken roads with no destination. The town square, now topped by a ceiling of shifting light, and wreathed with kelp.

The view shifted, as the instrumental bridge of the song played over images of a long path lined with statues of lions, and then the steps of what appeared to be some sort of pyramid. Then the voice returned, soft and melancholic, over photographs of artifacts that had spent ages under the ocean. Metal rusted into silence, Gakupo thought uneasy.

_Futuros amantes, quiçá_   
_Se amarão sem saber_   
_Com o amor que eu um dia_   
_Deixei pra você_

The song finally ended, and the title of the documentary popped into view. The image briefly faded to black, and then returned with a man seating on a dock, white hair tussled by the breeze. The host began to monologue about the sea, and the many wonders of humanity hidden under its waves.

“Why speak when you can sing?” Luka questioned out loud. Her expression seemed to match the disappointment in her voice, for once.

He turned to her with a grin. “That’s how their movies tend to work, fiction or otherwise. It’s uncommon for a whole work to be sung or recited.”

“I want to hear the song again.” Luka said, her tone leaving little room for argument.

“Projector, rewind footage to 0 scene 1” Gakupo said out loud.

“Rewind to 0:00 Scene 1. Confirm?” The same genderless voice from before asked.

“Confirm: Yes.”

Luka grabbed his hand as the first notes filled the room once more, and sang alongside the melody, imitating the pronunciation as well as her voice set permitted. Gakupo joined her in the next line, after consulting his short-term records for lyrics. He briefly wondered if his voice matched the softness of the notes, but Luka squeezed his hand tighter, which he took as a sign of encouragement.

They followed the voice of the sea, reaching the shore only for Luka to request another encore. Again and again, she plunged back into the song, and he chased her past the notes rising like bubbles from the depths. They sank to the bottom repeatedly, two beings that had no need for air. Finally, Luka was satiated, and quietly asked him to mute the film. Dates and historical relevance of ancient civilizations meant little to her.

“My previous Master took me to a natural history museum, once.” Luka blurted out, after some minutes of watching marine creatures silently navigate the wall.

“Natural history?”

“They had specimens of uncommon and extinct animals, and a whale skeleton hanging from the ceiling of the main hall,” Luka explained, and pushed the arms of the chairs out of the way. Gakupo observed with some alarm as she shifted position, lying down in such a way as to rest her head on his thigh.

“What are you doing?”

“This is something she taught me. It’s a sign of intimacy.”

 “Ah…” he hesitated. “Do I need to do anything?”

“You can caress my hair.” That was simple enough, so he set to it immediately. “A bit slower… There.” A pause. “I had a nightmare, after that visit.” She whispered.

It was a very rare phenomenon, an error of their systems when compiling and analyzing the information of the last active cycle before a full charge. The most salient events of the cycle were sometimes copied into the wrong memory sector and mixed with redundant and corrupted data, resulting in auditory and visual ‘hallucinations’ eerily similar to what humans faced each night. Gakupo hoped the issue wasn’t fixed with a mandatory patch until after he had the opportunity to experience it at least once.

“I was outside in the rose garden. I looked up, and there were bones scattered in the skies, from horizon to horizon. Then the great beast took me into his mouth and carried me to the bottom of the sea. He left me there in the dark. My arms and legs shattered under the pressure. My mouth filled with salt water. I rusted and crumbled. I spent _centuries_ down there. ”

Gakupo closed his eyes, picturing himself lying in pieces over the sand. Years and years, all crawling over him like the blind creatures of the abyss.  The hand resting over Luka’s long locks shook slightly.

“Did you tell your Master about it?”

“Mother said fear proved I had a sense of self.” Luka said proudly. “And that people dream, whereas things just are.”

“She sounds like a wonderful Master.”

“She was,” her tone was rich with conviction. “She had nothing but kind words for me. _Look at my beautiful daughter_ , she used to say, _my dear daughter_. And she would kiss my cheek and hug me, and ask me to sing while she knitted by the fire.”

Luka took his hand, and made it trace the lines of her bodice. “She made this dress for me.” Gakupo felt the material under his fingertips in wonder. A human had spent days working on this, patiently making knots in endless rows, creating an intricate repeated pattern. He couldn’t picture his Master wasting her time making something so elaborate just for him.

“She also bought me many designer gowns. I wore them to make her happy, but I liked the handmade ones better.”

Gakupo creased his brow, thinking back at all the times they’ve met. “I don’t think I’ve seen you in anything but this dress and the silver one with the furs.”

“I don’t have them anymore. They took everything away,” Luka closed her eyes, her voice more opaque than ever.

“Who?”

“Her other relatives. Mister Smith had to fight to get these two outfits back.”

“Hm…They had the right to take them, though. They were never really yours in the first place, legally.” Gakupo noted, repeating the precepts engraved in his mind.

“Do you think I need to be told that!?” Her tone was hard. She sat back straight, pushing Gakupo’s hand away.

 “I…didn’t mean to upset you. But that is our current standing in society, isn’t it?”

Luka looked at his uncomprehending face, and the stony look in her eyes softened a little.

“That is correct,” she finally sighed. “And I shouldn’t be mad at you.”

Luka lowered her head, as if pondering what to say. He was rather at a loss himself.

“Let’s just watch the rest of the film, ok?” she held out her hand, and Gakupo readily took it and nodded.

For the moment, silence seemed like a safer choice.

* * *

 

Smith, as it turned out, had to go on assignment to Borealis Station for a fortnight. There was no space for Luka in the flight, but his Master gladly agreed to take her in for the duration of his trip.

The next morning the four of them rode together to the spaceport before dawn in Smith’s truck. From the back row, Gakupo could only see the back of his Master’s head, and her hair tied in a somewhat messy bun. She seemed somewhat quiet. Had things gone well the previous night? The masters never called them until it was time for a quick breakfast. Despite his (likely) lack of sleep, Smith looked extremely happy, glancing here and there at the copilot seat for no apparent reason other than to see his Master seating there.

At the port, Smith entered the prep room, and the other three headed directly to Strip 4, where the craft was already waiting. It was one of the smaller models, with capacity of eight passengers, plus two crewmembers. Said passengers, a group of sleepy scientists, were gurgling coffee in the observation seats. A maintenance employee and his crew of bots were busy making last minute checks of the spaceplane’s exterior.

Half an hour later, Smith showed up in his grey and orange flight suit. The passengers began to board.

“Take care of the girls, ok?” he gave Gakupo a friendly tap on the back.

“Yes, Mister Smith.”

The navigator then gave Luka a wave, which Luka half-heartedly returned. “Be good.” Luka nodded.

“Mitsuki…” he turned to his Master. She smiled timidly. With a gruff laugh, Smith picked her up in his arms. His Master gave out a little scream.

“If it were up to me, I’d boot one of those eggheads out and take you along instead, but alas. I guess I’ll have to take a souvenir instead.” Smith kissed her. Somebody nearby shouted his approval.

When Smith finally let her down, Gakupo had to grab one of her arms to keep her steady. Her face was also awfully red. Despite his research, Gakupo couldn’t help feeling the effects of courtship seemed uncomfortably close to those of an illness.

“Are you alright, Master?” he asked, worried.

“….eh? Ah, yes, absolutely” she laughed.  

“You’ve got some things to learn, buddy.” Smith winked at his Master, and with a last wave, climbed the ladder to the cockpit. The trio retreated to the observation terrace.

The takeoff went without a hitch, as expected. The elegant nose of the spaceplane glinted with the first rays of the sun as it cut through the air. ‘Humans are so talented, to be able to make something as complex and beautiful as that,’ Gakupo thought with reverence. With a graceful curve, the spacecraft rose into the skies at surprising speed. It quickly diminished in size and disappeared.

“We have some time left before my shift starts,” his Master said. “I’ll take you to the terrace.”

They headed into the R&D sector of the spaceport, past the hangars full with ground crew, organic and synthetic, prepping the day’s flights for lift off. As always, Gakupo watched their activities with fascination. So many questions he couldn’t ask.

The area dedicated to research and development was composed of a series of squat, plain-looking white buildings housing development of new engines, navigational software, life-support systems and more. It had another, shorter row of landing strips for experimental craft. His Master marched into the building dedicated to the deep space exploration mission. Since Luka didn’t have the clearance to enter the labs proper, the trio took the closest elevator up to the top floor, and then the emergency stairs to the roof.

Up there, there was a tiny terrace between two elevated sections covered in transmitters and antennae. It had nothing more than a couple of cheap plastic chairs and a table under a faded umbrella, a barbecue and an ancient dartboard on the wall, next to the emergency door.  Given its looks, the space probably wasn’t even planned to be a terrace at first, before the scientists that worked below colonized it. Besides its inconvenient size, you could always hear the humming of machinery, especially the AC units keeping the floors below cool. Nevertheless, the view of the landing strips was unparalleled.

A huge spacecraft, one of the Asimov models that serviced the route to Belt Station and the outer outposts, was being refueled. Its massive shape shined like a diamond under the summer sun. Multiple bots were crawling all over its surface, searching for any damage suffered in its latest voyage.

“Stay here, ok? I’ll come back at lunch.”

Gakupo and Luka nodded and sat under the big umbrella, grateful for its shade. Third-wave synthetics like them were at a disadvantage compared to humans when it came to overheating, since they didn’t have a good way to dissipate the extra heat provided by the summer sun. Even if the day was just starting, it was better to prevent any issues.

After five minutes of silently watching the proceedings below, Luka suddenly broke the silence.

“It wasn’t about having pretty dresses.”

“Huh?”

“You and I could run around naked, like older models do. We don’t need clothes. But those were gifts. It was wrong for them to invalidate her choices.”

“Mr. Smith’s relatives?” Gakupo was somewhat surprised that she wanted to revisit their conversation, after her outburst the previous night.

Luka reluctantly took her eyes off the Asimov craft, and stared into his eyes, intently.

“I need _you_ to understand how it felt. I don’t know why, but it hurts that you don’t.”

“Then make me understand.”

Luka lowered her face, as if organizing her thoughts.

“The day after she was gone, I wore the dress she liked best, her favorite jewelry, and weaved flowers into my hair. I knew her relatives were coming, so I waited for them in the foyer, to beg for permission to attend her funeral.

They did come, a couple, some children, and an older woman with a dour expression. They stood there, staring at me wide-eyed as I offered my condolences. However, when I tried to continue, the older woman jumped at me…”

At that point, Luka suddenly raised her arm, and Gakupo watched with dismay as she mimicked pulling something back and forth. Her expression didn’t change, but she adopted an angry, shrilly tone.

“Look at this thing, dressed like a bloody princess! What are those, real diamonds!? They are, aren’t they?! Take it off, you hear me?! Take everything off!”

Luka fell silent, her hand still grasping the imaginary woman’s arm. Then she slowly brought it to rest in her lap.

“After I stripped, they ordered me to stand outside by the door, and stay out of the way. Then they started to rifle through the house. I could hear them, going up and down the stairs, and shouting at one another from room to room. After a while, they began to bring furniture to the porch, and garbage bags full of clothes and ornaments.

There was a big pile outside by the time a blue truck pulled into the driveway. A big man jumped out, carrying a jacket in his hands. He looked furious.”

“Was that Mister Smith?” Gakupo asked, tilting his head. Luka confirmed it with a nod.

“He draped his jacket around me and told me to wait in the car. He then said he was going to ‘knock some sense into them, for throwing the things she loved out on the street like trash’, and ran inside. I sat inside the truck, obediently. Unmoving. Do you know what I wished for, then?”

“You… you wished you could’ve preserved the life you had with her. The space you had, with everything it its proper place.”

His own mind rebelled, when he tried to think of his Master gone, and their home dismantled. Her computers unplugged and placed into boxes. Her paintings, the plush dragon she kept in her nightstand and the happy mess in her study, that mountain of scribbled paper and books he was constantly trying to control, all thrown away as garbage. He couldn’t finish the thought.

Luka studied his expression, with a kind of grim satisfaction in her eyes. Then she rose from her chair and sat on his lap, burying her face in his neck.

“Console me,” she said softly.

Hesitantly at first, he circled his arms around her. What sort of assurance could he ever offer her? At the same time, it was overwhelming having her there, her body pressed against his. Once more, he felt as if they were two separate pieces of the same mechanism, finally remembering their true function. Then he had a realization, hard and hurtful: he couldn’t think of Luka gone, either. He hugged her fiercely, and she responded with the same eagerness.

They clung together, insignificant objects bound together by a reckless impulse, for a long, long time. They only separated with the echoes of approaching footsteps. It was lunchtime.

 


	3. Inner Life

“How about this one, Luka? You’d look so cute in this!” His Master held a vaporous pink dress in front of Luka’s chest, studying the effect. Luka managed to look even less impressed than usual.

The scientist had stated that she wanted to buy a few things in the trendy fashion district: an unusual proposition, since she tended to feel intimidated by the types of human that frequented that zone. However, once there, it became clear she wanted to play dress-up with them, and had no need for clothes herself. For his part, Gakupo didn’t mind trying out the suits she picked out for him, since she enjoyed it so much. On the other hand, they were in their fifth store by now, and Luka had yet to show any interest in even a single article of clothing.

His Master sighed, then signaled one of the assistant bots rolling through the aisles of the store.

“Can you give this back to the lady at the counter?” She dumped the pink dress into the basket over its compact square body. It was already rather full with discarded clothes. The bot chirped inquisitively.

“Yes, that’s all for now. Thank you,” his Master replied kindly.

The bot made a parting beep and continued its patrol, expertly zigzagging its way through the crowded space.

Gakupo’s eyes wandered upwards. Near the ceiling, the store had a series of balconies with animated mannequins showing off various looks, changing positions every few minutes. They didn’t have true AI, of course, they just cycled through a series of programmed sequences. One of the mannequins was wearing an eye-catching aquamarine dress. The fabric hugged the bosom tightly, and then fell loosely in asymmetrical waves, the different layers iridescent like the wings of a dragonfly.

 “Maybe that one?” He pointed.

“It’s like the sea…” Luka muttered with wistfulness. His Master almost exploded with joy. Luka quickly added: “Uh- Miss Torii, I don’t think it would look good on me.”

“I think it matches your eyes,” Gakupo commented.

  “Yes-yes-yes! I’ll get one right away, ok? Wait here!” His Master bounced enthusiastically, almost skipping as she set out to get the precious dress. Soon, she disappeared behind the wall of women and colorful clothing.

“What do you think you are doing?”

“I don’t know what you mean,” Gakupo said innocently.

“Don’t encourage her. I don’t need anything here.” Luka’s voice was acrid.

“Do you think your dress is going to remain in good condition if you use it day after day? You and I have the potential to exist for hundreds and hundreds of years. I assume you want to keep it with you for as long as possible.”

Luka lowered her face, studying the dark weave of her dress. “I hadn’t considered that before…” she trailed off. “Yes, I want to be wearing it when I deactivate. It needs to last until then,” she said as she caressed the fabric.

She met his eyes solemnly. “Thanks for mentioning it.”

“Perhaps in return you could show some enthusiasm for that pretty dress up there?  Just a tiny smile,” Gakupo winked at her.

“Perhaps.”

A woman carrying a small mountain of clothes pushed past them, eyeing them with curiosity. Admittedly, seeing two humanoid synthetics like themselves together, especially without their human masters, was an uncommon sight.

“Honestly, when was the last time you smiled?” Gakupo asked in a hushed tone.

“12263117 seconds and 45 milliseconds ago.”

Over four months. Gakupo’s eyes widened. It seemed ludicrous, considering smiling was part of their range of automated responses. In their efforts to mimic human behavior, their makers developed systems that automatically responded with the proper facial expression to stimuli, without the guidance of the higher hierarchy functions that simulated conscious thought. Of course, the initial work of designing and coding a system that accurately selected a proper response had taken years of trial-and-error. Also, third-wave synthetics such as them depended so much in a continuous process of assessment, compilation and re-contextualization of data that recently activated units functioned much less efficiently than the older ones. They simply didn’t have enough life experience to react correctly to complicated situations.

But Luka had been active for months, even longer than Gakupo. Even if her personality didn’t lend itself to many displays of emotion, by now she must have developed the reflex to react with a smile whenever it was appropriate. The chances of such an event not coming up in four months was astronomical.

“You’re staring,” Luka said with amusement in her voice.

It was hard to choose a proper response. Lately, whenever the topic of maintenance or modding came up, Luka tended to dodge the issue. Come to think of it, Mister Smith had not yet asked his Master to tinker with Luka’s systems yet. Did Luka ever discuss the issue with him?

“Smile for me.”

“Hm?”

“Right now, smile for me. Please.”

Luka gave him a blank stare. Finally, she looked away. “…No,” her voice almost seemed fearful.

Something _was_ wrong, wasn’t it? His Master’s theory, that Luka’s quirks were a product of her personality constructs, simply didn’t add up.   

“Is everything alright?” his Master had approached the pair without him even noticing it. Another small bot trailed behind her, carrying not one but several different blue and turquoise dresses in its basket.

“Master, can you do maintenance on us when we return home?” Gakupo said quickly. Luka took a shaky step back, almost as if fighting the impulse to move.

“Eh? Of course I can.” His Master answered, looking worried. “I told Warren we were going to drop by the Golden Skies after this, but if you feel it’s serious…”

“It isn’t.” Luka suddenly interjected, balling her fists.

“Yes, it is!” Gakupo shot back and grabbed Luka’s right arm. His Master stared at them, bewildered. A small crowd of customers began to form around the trio.

Luka was trembling under his fingers. There were little mechanical tremors running through her body, a symptom that seemed awfully familiar. Gakupo had that happen to him only a couple of times, but it had been so unpleasant as to leave a permanent impression.

Luka was wrestling with conflicting orders. Most likely, part of her mind was ordering her body to run away, while another was telling it to stay put. And that meant her basic directives, standing orders and personal initiative were clashing somehow.

With strangely choppy movements, she raised her left hand and placed it over the fingers gripping her. Maybe she was trying to ground herself in something solid, he thought. Eight long seconds passed while she sorted through whatever was going on in her head. Suddenly, the tremors stopped. 

“It would be beneficial for my overall performance to undergo routine maintenance,” Luka said carefully choosing her words. “Gakupo is worried that I have some issues with zygomaticus regulation. However, I’m not currently suffering any critical malfunctions, so it can wait until tonight. Please don’t abandon your current schedule on my accord, Miss Torii.”  

“Oh- good, that should be easy to check.” His Master looked relieved.

“I appreciate your concern for me, Gakupo” Luka said, gently removing his hand from her arm. “But it’s going to be ok.” With that, she went to check the dresses in the bot’s basket.

 

“I hope so,” he whispered.

* * *

 

The Golden Skies was a busy establishment in Gibson Street, the unofficial border between the restaurant and entertainment district, and the zone filled with warehouses and shops selling the latest in electronics. They offered live performances with a teashop and a bar at the top floor, with the added bonus of welcoming all sorts of synthetics inside its doors.

It made sense, given who the main stars of the in-house performing troupe were.

Luka looked upwards at the huge billboards covering the front of the building, with a small frown. “Rin and Len in _Midnight Clash under the Cherry Trees_ …?”

“It’s a theater play, they are entertainers,” his Master explained with a smile.

Luka studied the pair posing in complicated costumes, their impossibly bright hair and eyes outing them as synthetics.

“I didn’t know child synthetics existed.”

“They are very uncommon. I wouldn’t be surprised if these two were the only active ones in the continent. I feel very lucky to have met Len. Perhaps we’ll have the chance to talk to Rin today.” Through common friends, Rin and Len’s master, Mister Warren, had known of his Master’s interest in synthetics. So one day, after Len injured his wrist during a performance, he requested her help in fixing him.

Both Rin and Len were modded, he confessed, so he couldn’t take him to the official repair shop. But the modder was now requesting an unreasonable sum for his help, which probably was his plan all along.

For his Master, it was like a surprise present. A chance to examine another synthetic, and a child to boot! What wonderful things she could learn from comparing Gakupo’s neural net to Len’s! She quickly repaired the boy’s wrist and promised to lend a hand whenever the twins needed maintenance. In exchange, Warren and Ariadne, his wife, had gifted her with a lifetime VIP pass to the Golden Skies. 

The man himself stood by the entrance doors, welcoming his customers with a booming greeting and a tip of his top hat.

“He looks _old_ ,” Luka whispered to Gakupo. He understood what she meant. In developed countries, the majority of people had access to anti-aging treatments that masked their true age. It didn’t prolong their natural life expectancy, in most cases, but it meant that pure white hair and wrinkles such as his were an extremely odd sight.

“It’s all part of his stage persona, I think,” he replied. With his old-fashioned suit, an elegant clock hanging from a gold chain, a flower in his lapel and his carefully groomed moustache and beard, he looked like the quintessential grandfather from a fairytale. He let out a hearty laugh when he saw the trio approaching.

“My dear Mitsuki, and Gakupo too! Welcome, welcome! And who’s this beautiful rose?”

“This is Luka. Say hello to Mister Warren Goldstein, Luka.”

Luka gave her usual muted greeting. Warren shook his head, with mock consternation. “No-no-no, that won’t do at all! Young women should be confident, and shine like the sun! Look at my Rin up there! Do you think she’s ever daunted by anything? No, sir! How about you try that again?”

Luka hid behind Gakupo’s back, burying her face in his hair. Gakupo blinked.

“Please Mister Warren, Luka isn’t good with strangers.” He wasn’t sure that was exactly right, but it was something his Master had said at one point. The scientist nodded, clearly gushing at Luka’s cuteness.

Warren laughed again, not unkindly. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. What a sweetie you have there, boy. You are a lucky one, eh?” He gently pushed Gakupo inside, with Luka still clinging to him. “Go find a table for two while I talk to Mitsuki. Have yourselves a nice romantic date, order whatever you want.”

Luka took his hand as they descended the carpeted stairs to the floor of the foyer. They could already hear music and cheering, drifting through one of the partially opened doors to the main stage area. A youthful, high-pitched voice broke into song.

“I think I’m a bit underdressed for a romantic date,” Gakupo noted, pointing towards his t-shirt and jeans. Luka was wearing a long shimmering blue dress, one of the new outfits his Master had bought for her.

“How thoughtless. You’ll have to make it up for me later, _boy_.”

Gakupo laughed.

They stepped inside. Immediately, they were surrounded with confetti and balloons that disappeared as soon as they touched the ground or their bodies. The whole semicircular space, three stories tall, was filled with colorful shapes floating in mid-air. The stage, surrounded with packed tables, had a translucent carousel on top of it, and in its center, dancing wildly, was Rin. Her body left a trace of light as she moved, with the long ribbons around her head and waist floating weightlessly around her.

The patrons, a mix of humans and synthetics of the various models, were clapping along with the beat of the music. Those who could clap, in any case. Most of the synthetics present were second-wave models, humanoid in shape but with shiny metal skin and rough features. Some were robot-pets, mostly cats and dogs, but also birds, a couple of turtles and a white tiger. There were even some ancient first-wave types, boxy and mindless, watching the stage with photoelectric eyes. There was even a late third-wave model like them, a huge male with brown and white hair, sitting at a table with a tiny schoolboy.

Looking around, they noticed an empty table near the middle of the room. As soon as they sat down, the circular projector in the center lit up, presenting small holographic images of Rin and Len.

“Welcome to Golden Skies! Who do you wish to be your server today?” the twins asked in unison.

Gakupo looked at Luka, but she simply shrugged.

“Len, please.”

Rin bowed and disappeared, replaced by Len. The blonde boy started to explain the specials for the day before Luka interrupted him

“I don’t like eating all that much,” Luka mentioned quickly.

“I don’t either, to be honest,” Gakupo said in response. “But they have alternatives for synthetics. Right, Len?”

Len’s image flickered slightly as he nodded.

“Our systems detect that you are third-wave VE models,” Len informed them. ”As such, we can offer you the following serums, virtual treats and services.” On cue, two menus appeared floating in mid-air before them. Luka tried to touch one of them, but her finger passed right through its simulated surface.

“Do you require a physical menu?” Len asked her.

“I didn’t… No, no thanks.” Luka looked up to Gakupo. “ _Virtual treats_? If this is not food, what is it exactly? _Summer Holiday_ , _First Day at Class_ … the descriptions aren’t really clear.”

“They are randomized virtual experiences. You can pretend to be a human, and-“

“I don’t want to be a human,” Luka cut him off brusquely.

“It’s just an opportunity to experiment with things we don’t have access to” Gakupo said, trying to placate her. He had to admit, at first it had been somewhat hard to fathom of taking the role of a human, even if it was a simulation. But it was just an intellectual exercise, right?

Luka looked at the menu with narrowed eyes, as if she expected it to chomp on her face at any moment.

“Since this is a romantic date and all, maybe we could try a co-op treat. Please bring us a shared _Honeymoon at the Asteroid Belt._ ”

“Certainly,” Len bowed and disappeared, replaced by a rotating logo of the Golden Skies.

“Honeymoon already? I think you’re skipping a few steps in the process, there,” Luka’s voice indicated some amusement.

“At least I didn’t go for _Golden Wedding Anniversary_.”

“I don’t know, I’d like to see how you look with a nice white beard like Mister Warren.”

Five minutes later, a bot approached the table. It held a silver platter with two tubes emblazoned with the Golden Skies logo. A life-sized image of Len appeared next to it, thanks to the projector lens on its side.

“Thank you for your patience. Please allow the treats complete access to your external stimuli configuration to maximize your experience, and remain seated while engaged in the simulation. The emergency termination code for your simulation is 36367.”

Gakupo picked up the tubes and uncorked the tip, showing Luka the connector under it.

“Time for lift-off!”  

* * *

 

Whatever Warren wanted to say, it took long enough for them to complete the simulation. After that, they quickly dropped backstage to greet Len and Rin, and returned home.

All in all, it had been a pretty good visit, Gakupo mused. After her initial reluctance, Luka seemed to really enjoy the simulation, especially the _Race to Ceres_ sub-event. Interestingly enough, her face in the virtual environment was much more expressive than her real one. He was eager to see what his Master could find out with the diagnostics tests.

“Well, since you also want some maintenance done, how about we start with you?” His Master walked into the lab, turning on the lights with a wave of her hand.

“Yes, Master.” Gakupo removed his ‘earphones’ and climbed onto the lab’s stretcher. He laid face-down, exposing the ports on the back of his head, usually hidden by the band of the headpiece.   

“It should take only a quarter hour, at most. Luka, can you go make me some snacks?”

“Yes, Miss Torii,” Luka replied blandly and promptly retreated into the corridor, the blue skirt twirling around her legs.

His Master approached him with several cables and began to plug them into his head. Though wireless connection was possible with some of the apparatuses, the signal tended to be less reliable than desired. She then inserted the connectors at the other end into the machinery around the stretcher, including three monitors.

“Here we go! Think of something nice and relax.” 

Gakupo closed his eyes. Several minutes passed with only the humming of the equipment, and the tapping and clicking of keys. Sometimes, he felt spectral fingers probing inside his head, and at other points his body twitched without his control.

He heard footsteps approaching. They stopped at the threshold of the lab, and his Master chuckled.

“Well, now you know what he’s been thinking about the entire time.”

Gakupo leaned on his arms, and looked at the monitors. The first one showed a fragment of the many lines of coding that formed his mind. The third one reflected the object currently holding his attention, in this case the monitor itself.

But the middle one had a grid full of flickering images of Luka: resting on his lap, cleaning the house, examining a book, sitting on a chair and balancing her feet, combing her hair… all fragments of time he had carefully preserved inside his mind.

“You told me to think of something nice,” he shrugged. What else could be better than to bring out those treasured memories?   

“Indeed,” his Master looked at him with something akin to fascination. “Could it be possible…?” she rubbed her chin, studying him and Luka in turns.

For her part, Luka stared at the screen with an unfathomable expression. She set down the tray of munchable goodies on a cluttered table, and turned to his Master.

“Miss Torii, could we speak in private for a minute?”

“Is this about the diagnostics equipment? It’s perfectly safe, I’ve been using it on Gakupo since I bought him.”

Luka shook her head. “I need your opinion as a woman.”

“…Oh?” his Master approached Luka and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Let’s go, then,” she said with an enigmatic smile. “Don’t try to eavesdrop, Gakupo.”

“I can’t unplug myself.” For whatever reason, his makers had written into his mind a compulsion against touching his own ports or the small maintenance panel.

“All the better,” she laughed a little.

They left the room. Gakupo closed his eyes again, resting his head on his left forearm.

What was going on? Was Luka trying to talk herself out of undergoing maintenance again? Her base directives had to be in favor of getting fixed, so the problem could only stem out of a currently active order from Mister Smith, or something her conscious mind had decided. The most likely source was Mister Smith, he imagined. His Master’s archive was full of cases of robots engaging in bizarre behavior because of incorrectly phrased orders by their masters. The imprecise nature of human language was partly at fault there, as well as the complexity of social situations. Life outside of the factories and research institutes was seldom as straightforward as their programmers hoped.

78 seconds later, Luka entered the lab again. His Master wasn’t with her. Strange. She calmly approached the desk next to the stretcher and removed her ‘earphones’, placing them next to his.

“Where’s my Master?”

Luka didn’t reply. Instead, she examined the cables connecting him to the diagnostics machines, and unplugged a couple of them from their ports.

 Gakupo turned his body sideways, leaning on an elbow. He looked at her with puzzlement.

“Luka…?”

Still silent, she pushed him back down on the stretcher. The cables lumped uncomfortably under his head, but they were quickly forgotten when Luka climbed on top of him. She straddled Gakupo, the other end of the cables still in her hand.

“I asked her to give us some time alone.”

“What? Why?”

Instead of answering, Luka plugged the cables into her own head. The world exploded in a billion points of light.

He was faintly aware that the stretcher was still under him, as he writhed involuntarily. And that Luka collapsed on top of him, moaning. Her hair tickled his chin, and her hands frantically grabbed at his t-shirt, tearing the fabric with ease. He held her tightly, with suddenly clumsy fingers.

But those external sensations were nothing compared to the influx of strange data flowing into him through their connection. He gave out a moan of his own as his mind struggled to allocate space to all the information suddenly pouring into it.

It was more than simply numerical sequences. It was her presence, stronger than ever, colliding into him, the sum of everything she was and more, that emergent self… All that called herself Luka rushed to meet him, fusing into him…

Deep inside of them, in the profound layers of being, there was an ocean, dark and endless. Under the restless waves, brightly lit strands of data weaved together, freely forming figures that dissolved only a moment later. The separated threads gathered time and time again, forming fleeting figures that blossomed silently.

And then, there were trees, exploding in size with the swiftness of thought, each node a fragment of a cherished recollection of their months of existence. Binary tendrils tying together concepts that formed an ever-expanding web. Towering stacks of images, cross-referenced and annotated and beloved.

Finally, there was a man and a woman. The end result of so many delicate layers of miracles.

They explored each other under a sky with fixed, unblinking stars. But they were the sky and stars and the cold ground, as much as they were the bodies recreated under their hands. There were no walls left. Luka was the synthetic daughter of a woman abandoned in her old age, as much as she was the synthetic servant of a scientist with her eyes fixed on the stars. Gakupo was a wonderful invention, as much as he was an unwanted inheritance. They saw each other from the outside, and then inquisitively touched the processes within. Their craving for each other grew, the insistent prodding of their innate mandate to learn only increased by their union.

More, they cried out.

More.

More!

* * *

 

Gakupo slowly opened his eyes. He gazed lazily at the ceiling for a moment, while his mind tried to review his latest recorded activities. His logs were a mess. The dull throbbing in his head indicated that he was low on power, although he was being slowly charged through the cord plugged into his head. He should probably go to the charging alcove and expedite the process. But Luka was on top of him, her head resting on his chest. Their interlocked bodies were covered by a blanket, for some reason.

His Master cleared her throat. Gakupo turned his head to the right, and saw her flick off the switch of the auxiliary battery on the desk. The flow of current trickling into him stopped. She sat down next to the stretcher, her cheeks flushing red, and unplugged his end of the cord.

“I’m sorry to wake you, but I need some help to get the house ready for tomorrow. You remember our plans, right?”

Tomorrow? Gakupo checked his schedule. Nothing. But there was a fuzzy void in this thoughts, and he suddenly realized that his inner clock didn’t match the display on the lab’s wall.

His master followed his eyes. “You’ve been out of it for quite a while,” she noted awkwardly. “You can imagine how surprised I was, when I came in here, and saw you two, err…” she trailed off, embarrassed. He couldn’t, actually. He vaguely recalled being examined, and then... There was a jumble of data in his head that needed sorting, and he felt a strange tinge of pleasure at the idea of analyzing it all in detail while he charged at the alcove.

He caressed Luka’s hair, calling her name softly, but she didn’t stir.

“She’s out of charge. You both were. At first, I thought you were going to stop on your own, but you, um, kept going,” his Master shrugged. “Can you lift her? Maybe I should’ve charged her first…”

Gakupo tried untangling his limbs from hers. It took some effort, since without the flow of energy and their guiding consciousness, synthetic bodies were heavy and stiff. He slowly rose to a sitting position, cradling Luka tenderly. The blanket fell to the floor, and Gakupo noted with some confusion that their clothes were torn into ribbons. Perhaps that was the reason his Master had covered them with a blanket?

“And that dress was brand new…” His Master muttered. He turned to see her studiously staring at her own hands, folded in her lap.

“Take Luka to the guest bedroom. I’ll see if I can change her clothes while you charge.”

“Yes, Master.”

He stood up, carefully carrying Luka in his arms. She was heavier than an organic woman of her size, but then again, he was stronger than an organic man. He took a few steps towards the door.

“Um, Gakupo?” his Master softly called out, still staring downwards.

“Yes?”

“I’m going to do all I can to make sure you two are happy, ok?”

“Thank you, Master.” He wasn’t sure what provoked her to say it, but Gakupo accepted her kindness gladly. She really was an extraordinary human, and he loved her almost as much as he loved Luka.

He stopped on his tracks as soon as the thought crossed his mind, shocked at himself. Was he even allowed to formulate such an aberrant idea?

He examined the words with care. He loved Luka. He loved Luka more than he loved Mitsuki Torii, his Master. He awaited the lash of his programming, the punishment for such disloyalty, but nothing came.

“I love Luka,” he tried out loud.

Behind him, a little laugh erupted from his Master’s lips. “I can see that. I was hoping your interactions would be interesting to watch, but _this_? ” She laughed some more.

“Is it… is it ok? Do I have permission to?”

“Permission has nothing to do with it. A person’s feelings can’t be stopped by mere words,” she intoned solemnly. Then she smiled at him, her face still brightly red. “Go.”

He looked down at Luka’s face, pondering.

“Yes, Master.”

What was in the jumbled data in his files?


	4. Private Activities

Gakupo headed into his bedroom to charge. “Bedroom” wasn’t a particularly fitting name for it, given that he didn’t own a bed in the first place, but it was the name his Master used. It housed his charging alcove, a wardrobe with all the outfits his Master had bought for him, and a desk with some self-maintenance materials.

Once inside, Gakupo surveyed the items over the desk as he undressed. There were serum bottles, fluid capsules (a message flashed on his visual display informing him that his fluid reserves were low), nano-probes, skin-repair foam and the box of his standard diagnostics kit. His Master preferred her own equipment over the kit provided by the factory, so he seldom used the little machine inside. Besides, all it could do in the event of a breakdown was inform him to go to the nearest officially authorized repair shop.

The t-shirt he _had_ been wearing was absolutely useless, unless he wanted a cleaning rag. He threw it aside for the moment. The pants were in a slightly better condition, but they still went to the floor in a heap. His Master wanted him well-dressed at all times in any case, so clothing articles in much better conditions were discarded all the time.

He placed his headpiece on the desk and climbed into the charging alcove naked. The device greeted him with a bleep and its mechanical arms restrained his arms, legs and neck. Several needles attached to the ends of fine cables jammed themselves into his spine and side. Brushing his hair aside with precision, it connected to the ports in the back of his head, and Gakupo felt the invigorating flow of energy rush into him. He closed his eyes with a relaxed smile.

It was time to sort through that lump of files in the back of his mind. He poked at the outer layers with caution. About 12% of it seemed to just garbage data, long strings of numbers and letters without any relationship to anything. They surrounded several files of different sizes, memories that somehow had been sorted without the proper time stamps. Some of these new entries had overwritten sectors previously occupied with his more recent memories, he noted with dismay.

He could remember parts of their shopping trip quite clearly. Even the weight of the plastic bags with Luka’s new clothing was precisely recorded in his mind. But his mind skipped right from the store and the pretty sea dress to the Golden Skies, and the virtual treat tube in his hands, with nothing in between. On the other hand, his memories of the simulation seemed mostly intact. He paused for a moment reliving them, once more seated in the small spaceship, savoring Luka’s face as she stared in awe at the asteroids spread out below them in the elliptical plane.

Reluctantly, he turned away and decided to analyze the new data. He probably just needed to sample a few and his automatic functions would determine the error in the algorithm and re-sort them properly. He set his last memory of laying on the lab stretcher as start point for the recovery process, and approached the first clump of data-

_“…Are you thirsty? I could go for a coffee before the shift starts,” Smith said._

_“I’d like that…but I don’t think it’s open yet,” His Master said, referring to the coffee store across the esplanade. It was pretty early in the morning, after all._

_“There’s some vending machines that way. Go get us some drinks, ok?” Smith took out a card from his front pocket and handed it to Luka._

_“Ah, wait a minute. Mine’s somewhere around here…” his Master riffled absently in her bag._

_“No-no, my treat!” Smith rushed to say, making a gesture with his hand at Gakupo and Luka. Luka nodded and took Gakupo’s hand, forcing him to fall into step beside her as she marched towards the other side of the esplanade._

_“What was that?” Gakupo asked after a moment, mimicking the gesture with his free hand._

_“It means ‘go away’. Or, ‘I want to be alone with her’, if you want to be more specific.” Luka replied quietly. “Now stop doing it or I’ll think you want me gone,” she added with a trace of impishness in her voice._

_“No, I’m glad to be with you!” Gakupo let his hand drop to his side._

_“Likewise,” she answered sweetly._

_Gakupo studied her in silence for a few seconds. Then he turned to look at the humans sitting at the bench. Smith appeared to be closer to his Master than before._

_“You say he wants to be alone with her…”_

_“Yes.” The tone of her voice seemed to indicate it was an obvious thing to say._

_“Why?”_

_Luka laughed huskily. “He finds her attractive, of course.”_

_Gakupo tilted his head, confused._

_Luka laughed again, seeing his expression. It was definitely weird to hear the clear amusement in her voice, and see nothing but a vague reflection of it in her face._

_“I don’t understand… just what does he want to do now that requires him to be alone with her?”_

_Luka stopped and stared at him. “…you aren’t joking,” she said finally._

_“No, I’m not.”_

_“I believe you need to research on human courtships, then.” Luka inclined her head, appraising him with half-lidded eyes. “Maybe I can teach you a thing or two,” she tapped the tip of his nose softly and resumed walking. Gakupo touched his nose, wondering silently what that meant, and followed her._

_“I’ll look forward to it, Luka.”_

_“I’ve been looking forward to_ you _, Gakupo.”_

Gakupo pulled back, surprised. That was a memory from much earlier, and duplicated to boot. He double-checked, and yes, there was a summary of the important events of that day archived in his memory banks. He erased the dup info and moved on to the next file.

_…Luka crouched, looking at the cans with the barest traces of curiosity in her face. “Why are there so many different brands?”_

_Gakupo crouched by her side. “Not only that, but they have different prices for the same vegetable…”_

_They stared at the perplexing foodstuff for a while. Neither had ever shopped at a supermarket on their own before, but Smith had insisted they were more than capable. Gakupo didn’t want to disprove the notion, but the process seemed more difficult than expected._

_“If we had net access, we could check reviews and determine the finest article,” lamented Luka._

_Gakupo nodded wistfully. But third-wave synthetics were prohibited from using the net at all. “Maybe we can ask a human customer for advice?” He suggested. Several had passed, staring at them inquisitively._

_“I wanted us to do this on our own,” Luka said sullenly. Then she-_

Another duplicated memory, and incomplete to boot. Gakupo deleted it and opened the next one.

_…It was painful, to watch her each day. Not only her body, but her very mind was fraying before her eyes, slowly, ever so slowly.  But at the same time, Luka felt a growing desperation to record every second of it, to save as much of her Master as she could in her data banks. So she stood at the foot of the bed, taking in the silvery hair, the obstinate wrinkles, the unfocused but bright smile. ‘Store it all in’, she thought, ‘she can’t disappear’._

_“Good morning, Mother,” she greeted her Master._

_“Good morning, dear,” the woman’s voice was withered and dusty._

_“It’s a clear day outside. Would you like to go see the roses? They are very handsome,” Luka said with forced cheerfulness._

_“Oh, sweetie. I’m sorry, but I’m so tired…” her Master replied. “Come here.”_

_Luka dutifully knelt by her side, letting her Master caress her cheek. Her Master’s eyes suddenly filled with tears._

_“I wish I could live long enough to see you married. To form a family of your own.”_

_Luka inclined her head, resting her forehead on her Master’s lap without a word. Again, she was confusing Luka with a human. At other times, she wondered aloud what her grandchildren would look like, as if Luka had anything else but mechanical entrails._

_But she knew better. She had no family, besides her Mother. And would never have one._

_Once her Master was gone, Luka would be in the bottom of the sea, lost in the lonesome darkness._

His eyes snapped open. One of Luka’s memories, in his head? How? He quickly skimmed through several memories. Most were more dups, but in the way, he found two more that weren’t his. He set those aside for later examination, and erased the rest. Then his automatic sorting process kicked in, presenting with a new memory.

_…his hands ripped the blue silk of her dress, mindlessly. His consciousness was spread all over, gasping for breath, diffused and aching. And like waves against the beach, Luka came to him again and again, leaving her mark. Her fingers traced feverish lines on his chest, and her presence sifted through his mind greedily. In return, he pursued her and pinned her and entered her, unrelenting…_

The recovery utility had finally recognized the pattern. Like a rushing stream, all the pieces fell in place. Gakupo fixed his eyes on the tattered clothing on the floor, and remembered. His arms jerked fruitlessly against the alcove’s restrains, vainly trying to catch the girl that wasn’t there.

Deep inside him, the sea stirred.

* * *

 

His Master was puttering about the kitchen, when he was finally done charging (and reliving his merge with Luka hungrily). She looked immensely relieved when Gakupo, clad in a fresh set of clothes, entered the room and greeted her. She sat on a stool, and observed him in silence as he inspected the ingredients she had placed on the counter.

“Mister Smith is due to return tomorrow, right?” Gakupo asked, examining the expiration date of one of the cans his Master had selected. He casually threw it in the trash without comment.

“Ah, yes,” his Master followed his movements with a sheepish smile. “I was thinking of making an orange cake too, to have more variety.  I can’t believe I’ve never asked him what his favorite dessert is…”she trailed off.

Gakupo doubted sugary food was high on the list of priorities for Smith, but just shrugged.

“Can’t you ask him? Borealis has access to civilian communications, right?”

“It’s meant to be a surprise party!” His Master pouted a bit.

“We should ask Luka, then. She must have some idea,” Gakupo pointed out.

“Ah, she’s still in the guest room. I- I couldn’t get her changed… She’s really heavy.” his Master tapped her index fingers together a few times. “I left her charging so she could do it herself.”

“It would be faster with the alcove. Maybe I should carry her-“

“Actually, I wanted to speak with you before she wakes up,” his Master cut him off, speaking quickly. She seemed uncomfortable again. “Sit down.”

Gakupo sat on the other stool by the counter and waited. His Master studied her hands, perhaps thinking of a way to phrase her thoughts. The cutesy clock on the wall counted the seconds loudly. Finally, Gakupo decided to take the initiative.

“Master, have you ever heard of two synthetics merging like that?” She twitched, surprised.

“Merging…?”

“It seems appropriate. Not only did we share physical intimacy, but mental as well, so our consciousness mingled freely with one another. I think Luka intended for me to feel her emotions directly, since she was trouble expressing them by other means.”

His Master nodded, pensive. The look on her face was a familiar one, the one she adopted whenever she studied a new engineering issue.

“As for your question, no, I haven’t heard of anything like it. For starters, all the research papers I’ve read regarding third-wave synthetic relationships focused on human-synthetic dynamics, and even then, they were mostly interested in the interplay between construct complexity and subservience. You know, constraining unwanted behavior,” she explained, twirling a strand of her hair around her index finger. “Not that the company would be interested in divulging that you are capable of forming emotional attachments among yourselves. Given how rare and expensive models like you are, I doubt most people would have a chance to see any extended interaction between two units, in any case. The boys at the factory might even consider it an unimportant side-effect of the way you are built.” 

“It doesn’t seem unimportant to me,” Gakupo replied good-humoredly.

His Master grinned. “It didn’t mean to downplay your feelings, obviously. What I mean is, VE units are supposed to devote themselves wholly to their Masters. Perhaps you are only restricted on forming more attachments to other humans, but not to other synthetics,” she rubbed her chin. “Ah yes, I meant to ask you- What do you plan on doing from now on?”

“Eh?”

“You and Luka. You intend to stay together, I assume,” she clarified.

“That’s…not up to us to decide,” Gakupo said slowly. He wasn’t sure why his Master needed to be reminded of their powerlessness. ”But if it were up to me, I’d spend the rest of my existence with her.”

His Master stroked his cheek, kindly. “Then it’s my job to find a way to achieve that. To tell you the truth,” she turned her gaze downwards, “I don’t know if Ish and I are going to work out, on the long run. We are so different… And the committee is going to announce the final crew roster for the _Leviathan_ soon.”  

“The long-range exploration ship?”

“Yes. If only one of us is selected, then you and Luka-“

“-we could end up never seeing each other again,” Gakupo finished, with a strained tone.

“I’ll talk to Ish. Even if he doesn’t to simply give her to me, I’ll find the money to buy her off, ok? It’ll be okay.” His Master placed her hand on his shoulder, trying to smile encouragingly. “I’ll do some private work, or take a loan, anything!”

Gakupo nodded, though he remained tense. The only reason his Master had managed to buy him in the first place was the money she received from the Ada Lovelace Award, an academic prize of some importance, so she needed to gather a big sum for Luka. Besides, what if Smith didn’t want to sell her?

The fear of separation, which had begun to hound Gakupo from the very start of his interactions with Luka, remained lurking about, gnawing away at his thoughts. 

* * *

 

Later that day, the counter boasted an impressive variety of tarts, cupcakes, cakes and pastries arranged on its surface, and yet Gakupo was still not done with the cooking. Before retreating to the lab, his Master had written down an impressively long list of things she wanted done for Smith’s welcome party. It seemed excessive for the number of people invited, but orders were orders.

Gakupo glanced at the kitchen clock. Luka should’ve been up and about for a couple of hours by now. Where was she?

As if on cue, he heard fast footsteps approaching. He smiled in anticipation, and calmly washed his hands in the sink. He had just began drying them with a towel when the door opened.

“Good afternoon, Lu…“ his voice faltered when he turned to look at her. The towel dropped to the floor.

She was wearing the aquamarine dress he singled out at the store. It fit her beautifully, as Gakupo expected. But that wasn’t what made him gape at her.

She was smiling. It was a dazzling smile so full of intensity of feeling that Gakupo felt as if he were standing right next to a roaring fire. Every drop of emotion he had absorbed from her during their merge, was now condensed in an absolute promise of affection. No matter what the future might bring to him, at the moment he was glad to be Gakupo, the synthetic. That smile was his, freely given, to preserve in perfect detail for years to come.

Luka threw herself into Gakupo’s arms with a melodious laugh. She wrapped her arms around his waist, and pressed her forehead against his, still smiling. He felt the need to ask so many questions, he couldn’t decide where to start. Instead, he touched the curve of her mouth with a tremulous hand, and ran a finger along her lower lip. Luka responded by pressing her body even tighter against him. She filled all of his senses, then, and Gakupo yearned to be linked to her once more, and taste her completely.

A small cough came from the doorway. Gakupo pulled back just enough to see his Master standing there with a shoebox in her hands. He noted with some surprise that his lower functions had labelled the sounds of her approach as irrelevant, and didn’t pass the information to his upper consciousness.

She wore an uneasy smile. “Um, I’m going out for a bit. You guys finish cooking and decorating the house, ok?”

That was odd. She never went anywhere without him. Perhaps she was worried that the house wouldn’t be ready for tomorrow’s party, but Gakupo was sure there was plenty of time left.

“If you are going to do… stuff after you are done, use the guest room,” she shifted the box’s weight and rubbed the back of her neck, blushing a bit.

“Stuff?” Gakupo asked.

“I understand, Miss Torii,” Luka replied quietly.

“That’s good. See you later, then,” His Master shuffled away.

There was something off about the scientist. Gakupo tilted his head, and considered following her. But Luka cupped his face with her hands, forcing him to look at her.

“Let’s finish this party business quickly, and I’ll show you what she means,” she smiled again, but it wasn’t the smile of pure joy of before. If Gakupo’s analysis was correct, it seemed to be better classified as sultry.

“Private activities?” Gakupo deduced.

Luka nodded, and turned her head slightly to a side, coyly.

What happened to her? Luka’s face seemed so expressive now that Gakupo felt mesmerized. Again he touched her mouth, fascinated. Luka caught his hand and studied it as she talked. “It seems Miss Torii worked on me while I was in sleep mode. She didn’t say anything about it when I woke up, but there was a table with tools and discarded parts next to the bed. She just smiled and told me to get dressed and come meet you.”

She paused for a moment, and when she continued, her voice dropped to a whisper. “And to think I was afraid for so long that she would ask questions I’m not supposed to answer…”

“I don’t understand,” Gakupo said. Did that meant that Smith ordered her not to answer questions about her own maintenance and status, then? And if so, why?

“It doesn’t matter anymore, that’s what I’m trying to tell you!” She smiled brightly once more, and Gakupo decided to put the questions aside for the time being.

There was so much else before him to engage his curiosity right now.

* * *

 

His Master didn’t return until late in the evening. The house’s sensors reacted to the presence of its owner, sending Gakupo an insistent message to fulfill his duties and come greet her. But it was a lighthouse in the middle of a storm, its beacon almost lost in the flurry of thoughts and physical sensations that was the merge. The house persisted for several minutes, with the unrelenting patience of barely sentient tech.

Finally, Gakupo propped himself on an elbow, looking at his surroundings with some confusion. They were in the drab guest room, laying naked on the bed. Their clothes were neatly folded and placed on the sole chair of the room. Luka was under him, her pink hair draped all around her face like a halo. She looked at him with some impatience.

“My Master’s home,” Gakupo explained. He tried to disentangle himself from Luka, but her legs and arms kept him firmly in place. He looked at her with some surprise.

“No. If she needs something from you, she’ll call. But you are with me right now,” Luka said fiercely. “You are mine right now.”

He paused. Her words made strange sensations surge inside of him, feelings he couldn’t yet identify, but were extremely agreeable. He dismissed the house’s message.

“I’m yours right now,” he repeated, testing the words. They felt correct. Satisfied, Gakupo placed a kiss of surrender between her breasts, and dove into her once more.

* * *

 

The next morning, the trio rode an automated car to the spaceport. Right on schedule, the spaceship carrying Smith touched ground. From the observation seats, they saw him descend and wave at them sleepy-eyed but cheery, before heading to the changing room. They followed him and waited outside. In record time, Smith came out with wet hair and casual clothes on, and without breaking his stride, threw Gakupo his duffel bag and casually picked his Master up. Despite her blushing and protestations, he carried her in his arms all the way to the officer’s parking sector, where his truck was. Luka and Gakupo trailed behind, she with a mild look of disinterest, he analyzing the situation with curiosity. He couldn’t tell if his Master was enjoying herself or not.

Upon reaching the car, Smith lowered his Master down and made her sit on the hood.

“I’ve missed you, girl,” he said and bent down to kiss her. After a moment, his Master circled him with her arms, shyly.

“…Me too,” his Master replied after the kiss. “Can you spend the rest of the day at my house?”

“Sure.” Smith helped her get down and into the truck, then walked briskly towards the driver’s side, grinning all the while. As he opened the door, he turned to Gakupo and Luka, still standing on the sidewalk.

“Get in the truck, third wheel squad.” They did.

When they reached the house, his Master avoided the front door, leading them instead through the garden and into the small laundry room. Gakupo noted that Smith was smiling knowingly, probably suspecting something was afoot.

“Gakupo, Luka, can you knock on my door around five?” She asked looking down at the floor tiles. Blushing intensely, she took Smith’s hand and led him down the corridor towards the main bedroom. Smith flashed them a victorious smile before disappearing after her.

Gakupo and Luka looked at each other. The duffel bag in his arms fell to the floor with a small thud.

* * *

 

“What the hell are you wearing?” Smith guffawed, leaning on the doorframe. Behind him, Gakupo could see his Master sitting in front of the mirror, trying out different hair pins.

“I believe this is called a long tailed tuxedo,” Gakupo replied helpfully. “And that’s a French maid uniform,” he added looking at Luka, who stood by his side impassively.

After knocking the door at five, Gakupo and Luka went to the guest room and changed into the costumes his Master brought back with her the night before. After double-checking that everything in the kitchen and living room was ready, they returned to the corridor outside of the main bedroom and waited for their Masters to come out. Half an hour later, Smith opened the door, and barely took a look at them before he started laughing.

“Come on Ish, they look good!” His Master chastised the navigator mildly. With a final turn of her head, she settled on a pin with bright purple flowers and stood up.

“If you guys are throwing me a surprise party, maid costumes are not the subtlest way to go about things.”

His Master pouted, dropping her shoulders. “I thought it would be cute…”

“Oh, it’s very cute. Show me what else you’ve got,” he placed his arm around her shoulders and guided down the corridor.

Gakupo turned to gaze at Luka, just in time to see her staring with contempt at Smith’s back. The expression vanished a moment later when she looked back at him. Gakupo blinked.

“I do look cute, right?” she asked playfully. Either she didn’t realize or didn’t care that Gakupo had seen her being disloyal to her Master.

 “You’d make my breath stop if I had that function,” he replied. Since Luka deemed that look to be unimportant, Gakupo decided to do so as well. She had taught him so many things thus far, that he felt safe in yielding to her judgment.

She smiled proudly and squeezed his hand. Gakupo looked down at their interlocked fingers.

“I don’t think I like gloves,” he noted. “I like to feel your skin against mine.”

Before she could reply, the feed from the front entrance popped open in Gakupo’s field of view, announcing the arrival of some colleagues of his Master.

“Ah, the guests are here. Let’s go.”

They were, as his Master predicted, rather impressed when Gakupo and Luka greeted them and took their coats. As they led them inside, he saw one of them wrung his hands excitedly, looking at Luka. Another, a small redheaded woman, actually untied his ponytail and ran her hands through his hair.

“I should ask Mitsuki if I can borrow you for a weekend,” she giggled while tracing his jaw with her fingers.

“Borrow me?”

“Excuse us, we need to bring the drinks out.” Luka interrupted, and dragged Gakupo into the kitchen none too gently. Behind them, the scientists laughed.

“Oh, look at that, she’s jealous! VE’s are the best!” The woman exclaimed, and her colleagues all agreed with big grins, before heading into the living room.

In the kitchen, Luka let go of him and crossed her arms, sullenly staring at a tray of pastries.

“Are you jealous?” Gakupo asked with interest. He wasn’t aware they were capable of that emotion in the first place.

Luka’s eyes met his for a second and returned to the pastries. Her expression slowly turned angry.

“You would lay with that woman, wouldn’t you?” She ripped the headdress off her head and threw it to the ground, exposing her ports. “Like an obedient slave!” she spat.

Gakupo pondered this. “She can order me to pleasure her, but I won’t obey her if I don’t want to. And I don’t. I would have to obey if my Master told me to do it, but I don’t think she would ever issue such an order, since she knows I love you. So the answer is no.”

Luka looked at him with widened eyes, silent.

Gakupo picked the elaborate hairband up, dusted it off and placed it back on Luka’s head. “It looks good on you,” he said, caressing her hair. “I’d say we rank lower than human slaves, actually, since they don’t consider us to be living beings. But what little I have to give is yours, Luka. Remember that.”

Luka lowered her face without answering. Gakupo turned his head to a side. “There’s another guest at the door, one of the pilots on Mister Smith’s squad. I’ll go open the door for him, you bring out the wine.”

“…Don’t let him get fresh with you,” Luka smiled at him, somewhat sadly.

“I won’t.”


	5. Wedding Vows

The party went smoothly, with a small gathering of people from the spaceport and a couple that attended the same university as his Master. After a while, the scientists requested that Luka and Gakupo sing for them. His Master agreed, delighted. With the lights dimmed, the pair stood before a view screen that took a whole wall of the living room. Together they sang several duets, while the screen projected abstract images and provided background music.

It was well past midnight when the guests started leaving, perhaps noticing that Smith was practically comatose on the couch. After the last one drove away, his Master dropped on a chair exhausted and kicked off her shoes. Luka and Gakupo started to take off the decorations.

“That was lovely and all, but I think I’m going to hibernate right here for a couple of years…” Smith droned with his eyes closed, doing his best impression of a ragdoll. “Get your things ready to return home tomorrow,” he opened one eye and addressed Luka. She stopped untangling a ribbon from one of the hanging lights and stared at him strangely.

“I want to stay here.”

His Master straightened immediately, with renewed alertness. Smith himself reacted much more slowly, almost drowsing off before he raised his head and looked at Luka, bemused.

“What?”

“I want to stay with Gakupo,” and as if to reinforce her statement, Luka crossed the room and hugged the synthetic. Gakupo hugged her back, but noted with alarm how the navigator’s eyes hardened.

“Mitsuki, I’m too tired for this crap right now,” Smith turned his head to look at his Master, startling her.

“Excuse me?”

“You ordered them to play house or something? I can’t help but think you are way too into this kind of thing, sometimes,” Smith shook his head.  

“They developed feelings for each other naturally, I’ll have you know. And why shouldn’t I be ‘too into’ synthetics? They are one of the most wondrous things created by man!”

“There’s nothing ‘natural’ about them,” Smith retorted with a dismissive wave of his hand. “And wondrous, really? Remember space exploration, or modern medicine, or the terraforming of Mars? Compared to all of that, they are nothing but over-engineered puppets!” Smith considered the pair with hostility. “Luka, punch him in the face. Hard.”

“Ish!” His Master jumped from her chair, horrified.

Luka took a step back, swinging her arm. A distorted wail escaped from her lips, and her body shook violently. Her fist traced a slow arch in the air, as she visibly fought to stay her movements.

“P-p-please-I-I-Aaaaaa-” Her voice, usually so sweet, fragmented into electronic shards of noise.

For a terrible moment, Gakupo thought she had broken down. He took her fist and pushed it hard against his jaw. The mandible piece under his skin strained uncomfortably with the force of the impact, but held intact.

“There! It’s done, it’s done!” he said hurriedly. Luka’s body suddenly went limp, and he had to keep her from falling down to the floor. She held on to him weakly.

He turned to look at the humans, uncomprehending. Smith looked somewhat disturbed by the whole thing, but his Master was absolutely livid. Gakupo had never seen her look like that, and it immediately made his internal processes demand he do something to make her feel better.

“Luka is not broken, Master. Right?” Luka gazed at him dizzily. She touched her throat, with fear in her eyes.

“G-Gakupo…” she muttered. They were still some odd skips in her voice, but thankfully they were barely noticeable. She nodded slowly.

Gakupo turned to his Master with a twitchy smile. “Please don’t be angry,” he begged.

In response, his Master’s eyes filled with tears, which was probably even worse. Smith leaped from the couch, contrite.

“Mitsuki, I’m sorry,” he tried to grab her by the shoulders, but she swatted his hands furiously.

“Shut up!” she circled around him swiftly and ran towards Gakupo and Luka.

“I wasn’t thinking right, I’m freaking tired!” Smith looked at her dejectedly.

His Master didn’t reply. She placed a hand on Luka’s forehead and smiled at her between her tears.

“Look, I’ll go, ok? I’ll leave Luka here and I’ll go. But I need her back next Tuesday.”

“Why?” His Master asked drily. “Take Luka to the lab,” she said in a much softer tone to Gakupo. He nodded and picked the gynoid up. Luka buried her face in his neck.

“Torrealba wants to see her.”

“The mission director? What for?” His Master frowned.

Gakupo stalled, halfway through the room. Luka herself turned one scared eye at Smith.

“No clue. But if the guy that has the final word on who goes up says he wants to meet her, she’s going. I’m sorry, but that’s how it is.”

His Master looked at him with narrowed eyes. “…Fine,” she answered after a moment. She took the flower pin from her head and let her hair tumble down to her shoulders. “Sleep here on the couch. The last thing we need right now is for you to crash your stupid manual truck somewhere on the way to your stupid house.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Gakupo, I told you to go,” she turned to Gakupo with a drained expression. Despite her kind tone of voice, Gakupo still felt a jolt of pain at his own disobedience. He immediately jogged out of the room, as fast as he could without running into something.

A few seconds later, he placed Luka face up on the stretcher in the lab. He took one of Luka’s hands between his, at a loss at what to say.

“…Take off your gloves already,” she muttered. Gakupo threw them across the room with gusto.

Luka turned sideways, and pulled the front of his jacket. Understanding her intentions, Gakupo carefully climbed on the stretcher and cradled her in his arms. Even in the current circumstances, having her so close felt good.

“I hate him. I hate all of them, tittering at us all the time,” she said darkly.

The flow of Gakupo’s thoughts almost clogged then, as his mind struggled with her words. It was one thing to wish for more autonomy, but to actually resent their own Masters?

“How c-c-c-can you…say that…” His own voice skipped and faltered, as Gakupo fought to even consider the idea.

“I’ve been able to formulate thoughts like that ever since the last time he brought me to a repair shop. They probably gave some of my parameters the wrong values. Not that I can act upon these thoughts in any way,” Luka answered after a moment, her face hidden by her hair.

“…I c-c-can’t t-t-talk about thisss-” Gakupo managed to say, painfully.

“For someone running so many unregulated modifications, you are surprisingly susceptible to disloyal thoughts. Funny how Mitsuki Torii thought those were acceptable restraints.” Luka whispered in his ear.

Gakupo gnashed his teeth and closed his eyes shut. He resolved to ignore Luka until she changed the subject. After a minute, he felt her sigh.

“My beautiful prince, locked in a cage… Forget I said nasty things, and love me again,” Luka sang in her opaquely sweet voice.

He opened his eyes. Luka’s face was very close, the radiance in her eyes pulsing with the hurried rhythm of her core. She leaned in and kissed him softly.

That was something he could handle, even if he couldn’t understand why he had been programmed to find the act pleasurable in the first place. He opened his mouth, and the kiss quickly evolved into something much more heated.  

His Master walked into the lab, rubbing her eyes. “Sorry about the wait, g-, “ she stopped in her tracks, red faced.

Gakupo sat up, and buttoned his shirt up, or at least what buttons it had left. Looking around, he saw his bowtie sticking out from under Luka’s left thigh.

“Excuse me,” he lifted her into a seating position on his lap, and then realized the bowtie was in split in two. He looked at Luka, and noticed that her uniform was hanging from one shoulder only, the other side completely ripped apart. They really needed to undress before cuddling, he decided.

“I’m sorry Master, I think we ruined the costumes. Are you going to lose your deposit?” He asked her. She blinked and busted out laughing.

“No, no, don’t worry about that. But let me check you guys out before you… erm, continue, ok? Though your face seems to be working pretty well,” she covered her mouth with her hand.

“He performs satisfactorily, Miss Torii,” Luka assessed.

“Ah-haha, that’s good to hear. And what about you, Luka? How do you feel?”

“The kiss of my beautiful prince rejuvenated me, even at the cost of my outfit.”

“Well, that’s all that matters. Still, I’d prefer to run a few quick checks on you, just in case,” his Master approached the stretcher, and Gakupo started to move, to let Luka lie down on his own. But Luka clung to his neck stubbornly.

“Oh, that’s ok. You can remain as you are, if you want. Just take off your headpieces-“ the scientist took some cables and plug them both to the machinery of the lab.

“You know… if Gakupo is your prince, maybe I can be your fairy godmother,” his Master mused, looking at the data filling the screens, and tapped some keys.

“Can you promise me a happy ending?” Luka asked.

His Master stopped, and looked at her. “I… don’t know,” she said sincerely. “I guess that makes me a very poor fairy godmother.”

“That’s ok.” Luka closed her eyes, leaning against Gakupo. “I’m not a very good princess either.”

* * *

 

Warren’s nephew was getting married that weekend. Gakupo, Luka and his Master arrived to the temple, a beautifully preserved building of stone and painted glass. There was already a large gathering outside, men and women dressed in fancy outfits, with some synthetics thrown in the mix. Gakupo spotted Rin and Len surrounded by a circle of admirers. In one corner of the plaza, the big male and child synthetic they had seen at the Golden Skies sat at on a bench.

“Oh my god, you are right! A third one, and he looks so cute! I have to meet him!” His Master gathered her skirts and ran excitedly towards the bench, ignoring the approaching Warren.

“Uh, Mitsuki? Good day?” The old gentleman looked at her with amusement.

“I’ll be right back!” She shouted over her shoulder.

Warren turned to Gakupo and Luka, shrugging. “Well, I can’t say I ain’t glad she loves you synth-types so much. Good day, my children.”

“Good day, Mister Warren,” they replied in unison.

“I thought Mitsuki was going to bring along the beefy fellow, what’s-his-name?”

“They had a disagreement,” Gakupo replied, wondering if it was appropriate to give any further details.

“That’s a shame. Maybe I’ll have to find her a husband myself, then.”

“Are you successful in the field of match-making?” Gakupo asked. Trading Smith for someone else seemed a good idea, after his Master bought Luka off him, of course. He didn’t want any more punches in the face.

“I’d like to think so, I introduced Walter to Anushka, after all,” he gestured with his cane to the church. Gakupo took that to mean he was talking about his nephew and the bride.

“What if she doesn’t want to marry?” Luka suddenly interjected. Warren looked at her, somewhat surprised.

“Why, you seem in a bolder mood today. That’s good, that’s very good,” clutching his monocle, he examined her face with mock seriousness. “Yes, there’s an outspoken young lady down there, under the rose petals.” Warren straightened back and he patted his beard. “I suppose Mitsuki might not want to exchange vows, as you say. Marriage is not a particularly popular institution these days. But she doesn’t strike me as the type to prefer loneliness, if I may say so. The mere fact that you two are here right now shows it.”

“Then you are the same. You have Rin and Len, after all,” Luka pointed out. Warren looked at the golden-haired twins with fondness.

“Who wouldn’t want to have such lovely grandchildren? Ah, I think it’s time to come inside. Go get Mitsuki back before you gain a new little brother.”

* * *

 

“The service was very beautiful, don’t you think? Western weddings are so interesting!” His Master commented as they approached the pavilion where the wedding reception was already underway.

“I didn’t really understand much of it. The priest made many references to places and people that aren’t on my databanks,” Gakupo said, and Luka nodded in agreement.

“Ah, I suppose so. But at least the building itself was very handsome, in any case.”

“It was,” he conceded.

“And they gave out song books,” Luka opened her purse and showed them the small tome. His Master blinked.

“I don’t think we were supposed to take those… Ah, we can return it later. Come on, we’re missing out on the fun!” She said as the sounds of a waltz reached them.

They entered the pavilion just in time to see the bride and groom dancing together, with everyone else forming a loose circle around them. The final chords of the song played amidst the clapping of the guests. A new song started, and more couples joined in.

A dark-skinned man approached his Master flashing an impressive smile. A few moments later, they were dancing. His Master had a look of extreme concentration in her face, obviously trying very hard to follow the gentleman’s smooth movements. He seemed to appreciate the effort.

“There’s that pair again,” Luka pointed to a corner. Indeed, there was Rin and Len, bouncing around the big synthetic. The little one looked at them bashfully. Luka and Gakupo stepped closer, until they could hear Rin and Len’s cheery chanting.

“Dance with us! Dance with us, Al!” They repeated again and again, while Al looked at them with a raised eyebrow. Suddenly, the twins became aware of Gakupo and Luka’s presence, and skipped over to them. “Big bro! Big sis! Dance with us!” It seemed a bit too much familiarity, considering they had only met once before, but Gakupo smiled and took their hands. “Hello, Rin, Len.” After a moment’s hesitation, Luka completed the circle and the four of them started spinning around.

“I’m not sure this is the right dance in this context,” Luka pointed out.

“But it’s fun!” Rin laughed.

“Oliver, please join us!” Len said, towards the third child synthetic. Oliver looked at Al, and the big one shrugged.

“Do whatever you want,” Al said with a surprisingly deep voice. He leaned against a post, with his arms crossed.

Oliver timidly grasped Len’s and Gakupo’s hands. “Hello,” he whispered. They started turning again, at a somewhat more relaxed pace.

“Hello Oliver, my name is Gakupo, and this is Luka. I believe you met my Master before the ceremony,” Gakupo said pleasantly. Oliver winced slightly.

“She asked a lot of questions…It was kind of scary,” the boy said, looking downwards. Al let out a laugh that sounded like a bark.

“She means well, she just-” Gakupo smiled.

“Hey, I know this song!” Rin suddenly interrupted, looking at the nearest speaker. It was playing the first bars of a popular romantic song. She sang with the music. Len joined a moment later, and then Oliver let out some frail notes. Even more surprisingly, Al closed his eyes and hummed along with his rough voice.

“We seem to have an audience,” Luka leaned towards Gakupo and whispered. He looked behind him, and saw that many of the guests had stopped dancing and were watching them.

“We should give them a good show, then,” Gakupo formed the singing kids in a line, facing the growing crowd. He and Luka held hands behind them, and added their voices at the chorus. Just before the last repeated verse, Al nonchalantly sauntered towards them and joined in. The end of the song was met with thunderous applause.

Gakupo spotted Warren. The old man spoke to the bride and groom, and after getting what seemed to be nods of approval, jogged heavily towards the DJ booth.

“I think we just signed on to be the entertainment for the evening. Lovely,” Luka dead-panned.

“Just don’t expect me to know the lyrics to any cutesy songs,” Al said with a smirk, as the first notes of another tune escaped the speakers.

The song was definitely cutesy. And Al knew the lyrics to it, and the one that followed, and every other track that played that evening. If anything, it was Gakupo and Luka that sometimes resorted to oh-s and ah-s instead of actual words.

No one seemed to mind.

* * *

 

“You know, I was thinking of how cute it would be if you and Luka had wedding rings,” his Master commented. “But we need to start saving money for Luka,” she said, stifling a yawn, and stretched as far as the car’s inner dimensions let her.

Luka tore her eyes from the passing scenery, and frowned a little. “What do you mean by that?”

“My Master wants to buy you,” Gakupo explained. Luka’s eyes widened.

“Did he really agree to that…?” She said incredulously.

“Uh, I haven’t really spoken to Ish about it yet. But, I don’t see why he would say no, if I offer a good sum,” his Master sounded less sure of her words than Gakupo would’ve wanted, regrettably. Luka looked away.

“Maybe you can make us a nice little gadget to wear instead,” Gakupo proposed, purposely ignoring the latter half of the conversation.

“That could end being as expensive as fancy jewelry, or more,” his Master smiled, “but I like the idea. Perhaps a communicator of some sort?” She reclined back, thinking.

“Make it sub-dermal, then.” Luka said, her eyes again on the shadowy streets outside of the vehicle.

“Why?” Gakupo asked, already suspecting the answer.

“So it can’t be taken away too easily, of course,” she turned to look at him, and smiled shrewdly.

“That’s not an unwarranted fear,” his Master conceded. “But having it that close to your inner casing would it make difficult for more elaborate functions, especially if you want it to be hard to find through ordinary scans. I think I could pull off a beacon emitter/receiver, but not actual two-sided communication, with the resources I already have at the lab. Would you like that?”

“A beacon…You mean I’d always be able to find Gakupo?” Luka asked, her eyes sparkling. He smiled.

“And vice versa, as long as you keep them activated, yes,” his Master answered.

“Can you get it done before Tuesday?” Luka asked with trepidation.

“It’s going to be close, but I believe so,” the scientist replied jovially.

“Yes, yes please, Miss Torii!” Luka exclaimed.

* * *

 

It was Monday evening. As promised, the two little implants were complete, and ready to be inserted under their scalps. With the help of some nano-probes, they would form a permanent connection to their mechanical brains, yet still remaining a separate entity.

Gakupo and Luka sat on a couple of chairs in the lab, while his Master fussed with her equipment some more. “I gave the beacon several methods of communication, so even if satellite-based coverage fails, the signal will transmit if you are close enough to each other. I estimate the maximum range of off-network reception to be about 90 km, by the way.”

The scientist carefully cut Luka’s skin next to her line of connection ports with a scalpel, to disguise the work with the crease already present, and inserted the implant and a probe capsule. She repaired the tear with some skin foam. Gakupo leaned forward, and his Master did the same for him. She then typed the activation code on the wireless console. “Ready?”

“Yes, Master.”

“Yes, Miss Torii.”

“Then I declare you husband and wife,” she said playfully and tapped the enter key.

It was like a heartbeat. The cores in their chests worked nothing like the human organ, and yet Gakupo could hear Luka’s heart, singing out to him. Her awed expression mimicked his own.

“There’s something missing here…ah, I know,” his Master tapped her mobile a couple of times. The sounds of the Blue Danube started playing all around the house.

Gakupo laughed, and took his bride’s hand. They stood up and danced, carefully avoiding the machines that hummed tonelessly along with the music.

His Master watched them, wiping her eyes from time to time with her sleeve.

* * *

 

Gakupo felt antsy. He had expected to find the absence of Luka disagreeable, but these past days had turned out to be much worse than that. The beacon told him precisely where she was, at the other side of town, but he couldn’t go to her. He was doing menial jobs inside the house, trying to push aside the urge to relive his memories of the past months fully, yet continuously hearing the siren call inside of his mind.

His Master was at work, for once leaving alone at home. She said she wanted to try to speak to Smith today, and that Gakupo’s presence would only complicate things. It hurt to be considered a liability, but she was probably right.

He closed his eyes and placed the knife on the counter. He couldn’t concentrate on the task at hand, and his Master didn’t need to come back to find she needed to re-attach a finger.

Gakupo wondered if this was similar to what happened to the very first units of his kind. All the VE-01 prototypes had gone mad, in the end. Too much feedback, too much endlessly analyzing the same information looking for more and more details… A curious mind, eating itself to discover the taste of its own coding.

The house piped in, amicably letting him know that a car carrying their Master had just stopped before its front porch. Gakupo opened his eyes.

“Good afternoon, Master. You are early today,” he greeted her at the door.

“Good afternoon, Gakupo,” she tried unsuccessfully to smile. Gakupo immediately knew something was wrong.

“Master…?”

“Can you get me a soda and some chocolate cookies? I’ll be in the living room,” she said quickly, and walked past him. Gakupo ran into the kitchen and grabbed the snacks, without really seeing them.

His Master sitting on the couch, staring at the abstract patterns of the view screen. She gratefully accepted the snacks and devoured a cookie in two bites.

“Sit down,” she told him, once her mouth was cookie-free. He took a chair across her.

“Torrealba called me to his office today. My boss, remember?” Gakupo nodded, “on the way in, I ran into Ish, I guess he was just finished talking to Torrealba himself.”

“Did you ask him-?”

“If he wanted to sell me Luka? Of course, at least I tried to. He brushed me off,” the scientist looked down with a sad expression.

“No…”

“That’s not the worse part. Torrealba called me to let me know the results before the official announcement of the crew roster. I-I didn’t make the cut,” his Master looked at him, choking on her words for a few seconds. She then looked at her clock. “They should be transmitting the press conference right about now,” she whispered. She ordered the screen to search for a news feed, and it diligently jumped past a couple of signals, and landed on an image of a group of people before the familiar logo of the space agency.

Gakupo knew. He didn’t need to see the pink hair on one of the figures. He didn’t need to hear the terrible words, because they had been repeating over and over in his head, driving him insane.

“Ish and Luka were selected to go.”

The living room suddenly trembled with a jarring burst of noise. It took a moment for Gakupo to realize it was his own inhuman screaming. He fell forwards, scratching his throat, trying to stop the sounds from pouring out of his mouth. But it was no use. Inside of him there was nothing but static, and endless loops of memories, a thousand images overlapping, shrilling at their futility. Several of his lower functions were instantly overwhelmed under the sludge of corrupted data. Gakupo strained, trying to grasp the pulsing beacon with whatever remained of him.

He shattered.

The body’s sensors kept absorbing the data from the environment around it: the crying woman, the carpet under it and the sounds from the screen. But there was nobody inside of it to interpret the information.

* * *

 

_“…He dared to say it was for my own good, can you believe that? That I was pouring my heart on something that didn’t deserve it. I should’ve know from the start what he was like. That big stupid…_

_I didn’t want to believe it, even after I saw what he had done to Luka’s face. I took out the twisted pieces with my own hands, and I didn’t want to believe it. Yes, take her to some hack to save money, what can go wrong, right? A partly paralyzed face, that’s what. And he ordered Luka to keep quiet about it, the poor dear…_

_God, I can’t believe I allowed him to touch me…”_

* * *

 

_“Well, that didn’t work. Don’t worry about my arm, it’s not broken._

_I guess I need to reconstruct your mind from the bottom up. And that’s going to take a while. At least it gives me the opportunity to remove the rest of the directives still shackling you._

_When you wake up, I am not going to be your Master anymore. No one will ever be again._

* * *

 

 _Torrealba gave me more details about the object today. Didn’t I tell you? That’s why the_ Leviathan _changed course a week ago. We received a transmission from Luka, that the ship’s sensors had detected an unknown object in a parallel vector to the original course. Heading here. So she set out to intercept it. Though I don’t know what will happen, if it turns out to be a manned spaceship…_

_I don’t know if ‘manned’ is the word I should use in this context, either._

_No, it isn’t emitting any signals. But its shape is too regular to be anything but artificial. We can’t really track it from here very well, since it is so opaque and small, but the readings from the_ Leviathan _are quite clear._

_I have to admit…I’m scared. You have to wake up soon, and go to her. Don’t let Luka face this thing alone._

* * *

 

Slowly, the flow of energy nudged him awake. His sensors returned one by one, filling out the world with weight, pressure, distance and sound. His memories were neatly sorted and ready to be accessed whenever needed. Yet something was missing. Several things were missing in fact, and on the whole, Gakupo felt different from what he used to be. He opened his eyes.

He was laying on his side, on the lab’s stretcher. Mitsuki Torii was perched on a chair next to the monitors, watching him nervously. Her appearance struck him as odd. Her hair was too long and wild, her face too gaunt, and there were bags under her eyes. Yet she smiled lovingly at Gakupo when he sat, looking at her confusedly.

“Mitsu-“Gakupo started, and then covered his mouth, surprised.

“That’s right. Call me Mitsuki, from now on. Please,” her eyes shone almost feverishly. “It’s done! I told you it would work,” a strange little laugh escaped her lips, and Gakupo sensed that the last words weren’t directed at him at all.

“I don’t understand,” Gakupo said. He looked around, noticing a couple of new machines humming contentedly near the walls, and a new clock. It was two in the morning. And the date…

“Is that correct?!” he pointed shakily at the glowing digits. Mitsuki didn’t bother to turn her head.

“It’s been one year, six months and eighteen days since the _Leviathan_ left Earth, sleepyhead!” the scientist intoned. “We are almost out of time.”

 


	6. Marvelous Gifts

There was no point on staying on the bridge. The consoles there continuously monitored the life-support, air and fuel reserves, and the integrity of the crew, but if anything needed repairs that couldn’t be handled by the _Leviathan’s_ own systems, the ship immediately notified Luka through their connection.

But there wasn’t much point in being anywhere else on the ship either. At first, she would float around, examining the many parts of the dimmed decks. But by now she knew every part of the ship by heart, and there was nobody to talk to. The organic crew was meant to sleep comfortably while the ship darted through the emptiness. Luka was under orders to only wake them if something relevant happened.

So she curled up in the command chair, humming and drumming a rhythm with her bare toes. Once upon a time, she had sang that tune surrounded by her friends, holding the hand of the man she loved. It irked her to have to resort to human words to label Gakupo and the rest, but she couldn’t run from the facts. She was a daughter of humans, even if they didn’t see it that way.

And that only fueled her hate for them.

They had taken Gakupo from her. It wasn’t enough for her to examine the past they had shared, not when she knew that he was back on Earth, beyond her reach. Luka needed to create more and more memories by his side. She needed him to be there by her side, to partake in the infinite variations of his smile, the subtleties of his touch, the way he joyfully learned and adjusted to new experiences. Luka was slowly starving, and they had taken away the one that could keep her sated.

The strain was starting to make her act in odd ways. Two months ago, she marched into the airlock, took off her shoes, and then went back inside and dumped them into space, laughing all the while. She had no idea why.

And she had spent so many days by now, floating upside down in the engine sector and dancing in zero gravity. She would spin around, slowly, suspended between the core of the _Leviathan_ and the curved walls of the chamber, bathed in pulsing red light. She sang the waltz softly to herself, recalling his arms around her, ignoring the ship’s messages until the pain of disobedience was too much to bear.

And yet, somehow, she kept going. Even her own systems seemed determined to taunt her.

Luka stared dully at the screen before the command chair. One of its many subdivisions showed the ship and its trajectory. In the upper right corner, a dot flashed. Despite their relative closeness, the object was still months away. _Leviathan_ was the fastest ship in the Solar System, and it would remain to be so until _Scylla_ was launched, three and a half years from now, but out here, distances were immense.

She was in a strange situation, in more ways than one. Like every other synthetic, she was supposed to safeguard human existence. And yet, the need to rendezvous with the object superseded the need to protect the crew. If it was dangerous, the sacrifice of a small number of humans was acceptable in order to warn mission control and the planet at large.

In fact, thinking that the object could be dangerous made Luka feel almost happy, right now. It was only the fear that it would harm Earth that made it less appealing.

\---

“We are wasting time! We need to-“ Mitsuki struggled feebly.

“You need to eat something and sleep. I doubt that a couple of hours will make much difference,” Gakupo cut Mitsuki off and pushed her gently towards the kitchen.

“But Luka-!” Mitsuki pouted.

“I extremely anxious to see Luka again, so much I can barely concentrate on talking to you. However, if I understand the situation correctly, you and Warren are the only human allies I have in accomplishing that. Having you in a good condition works in my favor. Please let me take care of you.” Gakupo sat Mitsuki on a stool, and started to inspect her supplies. Almost all of it was either rotting or past its expiration date.

“I’m fine! Stop bossing me around!”

Gakupo paused with a bag of flour in his hand. He fixed his eyes on it, thinking. “I feel no compulsion to follow your orders…” he trailed off. Despite his anguish for Luka, he felt a certain clarity of mind. The weighty whispers of his directives meant nothing to him now. He smiled with relish. “I _am_ bossing you around. I am going to make you some food, and you are going to sleep at least five hours, and then we’ll act upon your plan.”

Mitsuki glared at him with her arms crossed.

“You gave me this gift, Mitsuki,” he said softly.

“I guess I did,” the scientist conceded with a sigh. As she watched him continue his hunt for ingredients, her expression gradually softened. “Can you make me something sweet?”

“There’s not much to work with here, but I’ll do my best,” Gakupo winked at her, and began mixing dough inside a bowl. “And maybe you can answer some of my questions,” he added.

“Of course!” Mitsuki perked up.

“…Why did I break, and Luka didn’t? I am not… defective, am I?” Gakupo asked with some hesitation.

“No! Don’t ever think that!” Mitsuki jumped from the stool, shouting vehemently. Gakupo tilted his head at this. After a moment, she sat down, red faced. “It- It was my fault. All those modifications I’ve given you made your systems more unstable. But I was more careful this time around.”

“As for Luka… I think she’s just taking the long route to the same end result. These last months there have been several instances of bizarre behavior. Just three days ago, mission control received a transmission from her that was nothing but seven hours of some Brazilian song about scuba divers.”

“I think I know that one…” Gakupo smiled, shaking his head.

“Torrealba is thinking of waking up Thompson, so he can take a look at her. Pffft.”

“They are not going to hurt her, right?” Gakupo asked alarmed.

“No, at most they’ll turn her off for a while. But it’s not like they need to run a diagnostic to see what’s wrong here. They sent a companion model to sit by her own inside a ship for the next couple centuries, the idiots.” Mitsuki rubbed her bleary eyes. “But they needed a synthetic capable of creativity and adaptability, and only third-wave models fit that description. And happy coincidence, the biggest jerk in the galaxy owns one.”

Gakupo left the frying pan sizzling over the stove and crouched before Mitsuki. He looked at her carefully. “I get the feeling a human in my situation would feel resentment towards him-“

“Of course you should, he’s the worst!”

“Worst what?” Gakupo cocked his head. Mitsuki didn’t reply.

“Heh… If I compare him to you, yes, he wasn’t too kind to us. But you balance him out,” he took one of her hands and remembering Luka’s favorite gesture, he squeezed it gently.

The scientist looked at him with slightly unfocused eyes. It seemed like her reserves of energy were almost exhausted. No wonder, given that it was the middle of the night. Gakupo returned to the stove, flipped the pancake, and turned on the electric water heater.

“You’re wrong… I’m a bad person,” Mitsuki muttered in a pained voice. She scratched her scalp in a manic fashion. “You don’t know how hard it was not to simply erase your memories of Luka… The work of repairing you was going so slowly, and all the time I was afraid you’d just break again, the moment I woke you up.” Her eyes welled up with tears. ”And if I was successful, you’d go away. Even though I knew Luka was all alone up there, all I could think is how much I needed you…“ She broke off, sobbing.

The heater pinged. Gakupo poured water and some powder in a cup, and put it on the small kitchen table. Alongside of it, he served her the pancake. Then he once again crouched before the scientist. He looked at her wordlessly. Seeing her cry felt somewhat different from before. He still felt a need to comfort her, but the impulse came from a different part of his systems. It felt more personal.

“Your actions are what matter, in the end. I can’t judge you without bias, but to me, they are the actions of a good person,” he said simply. Nothing else was relevant, as far as he was concerned.

“I love you so much,” Mitsuki said, sniffling. A timid smile appeared on her lips.

“I love you too, Mitsuki,” he replied sincerely. “Now, please eat before it gets cold.”

\---

It was around five in the morning. Gakupo approached the garbage treatment unit in the back of the garden with several bags on his hands. It was rather appalling how much of a mess the house was, so he felt the need to clean up a bit while Mitsuki slept.

The neighbors’ bot, an early second-wave synthetic called Henry, was already trimming the bushes and gathering leaves. When he detected Gakupo, he turned his red photoelectric eyes towards him and did a stiff bow. “Good morning, Mister Gakupo” he called out with his gritty voice. Gakupo had never managed to convince Henry that he wasn’t a human and thus required no honorifics.

“Good morning, Henry,” he smiled and began emptying the bags on the appropriate chutes for each kind of waste, since most of the unit was, in fact, underground.

There were some bags next to the garbage, as if Mitsuki had tried at some point to clean the house but gave up halfway. Under one of them, Gakupo noticed a disk. He picked it up and examined it.

It said ‘for Mitsuki’ in Smith’s uneven handwriting.

Pensive, Gakupo took it back into the house and inserted it into the slot for the viewing screen in the living room. After a second, Smith appeared in view, dressed in his flight suit. He looked somewhat nervous.

“-um, yeah. First of all, thank you for watching this. And… I know I’m not your favorite person right now, but please hear me out, until the end, ok?” The man looked around and sat at the edge of the bunk behind him. Gakupo wondered where he was. It didn’t look like a civilian house.

“You might be thinking this is stupid, that I should’ve spoken to you in person. And you’re right. No duh, right? Big stupid-looking dude, does stupid things? Yeah, I’m not that smart, surprise. I’ve spent all my life fighting to stay over the water, you could say. But at least it got me here.”

“So yeah, call me stupid all you want. Perhaps that why I can’t see things your way, sure. But I tried. I tried for you, and for Aunt Lillian. God knows how much she loved that damn- how much she loved Luka. But try as I might, I see the strings. I can hear it when they speak. It creeps me out, honestly.”

“I guess you want to know what the deal with her face is…you are not going to like this, though…”

Smith leaned forwards, looking at his feet.

“I did something stupid. Like I said, every single day I have to struggle just to stay in the race. But I really wanted this, this mission. More than anything. So I took… something, to give me an edge over the competition. It was for the first round of tests. At first everything was great. It all seemed so simple. I aced the test, and none was the wiser. But even at the end of the examination, I started to get a headache. An hour later, I was shaking, had a fever and… things felt wrong. I had no idea how I got home, but I did. And there of course, Luka was waiting for me with champagne and who knows what, to celebrate my success. And then…” Smith fell silent.

Gakupo felt himself going tense, the constant ache for Luka flaring in his mind.

“You know I wasn’t in control, right? I didn’t never meant to damage the damn thing. And those thieves at the factory charge a fortune for repairs. No, there are way cheaper ways to blow off steam,” the navigator said, running his hand through his short hair.

“What did you do to Luka?!” Gakupo shouted pointlessly to the screen.

Silence. Smith leaned back on the bed, hiding his expression from view. ”I woke up the next day inside my bathtub, for whatever reason, stewing in my own freaking filth. That muck had worn off, by then. As for Luka, she was still lying on the floor next to the table. The guy at the shop said she shut down automatically to avoid a short or whatever, but moron that I am, for a second I thought I’d killed her.”

“There was no way I was paying for an official technician, never mind the fact that I would have to explain what happened. But the man I got was good enough, I guess. He removed the glass shards lodged in her face and fixed her up all pretty. Yeah, Luka couldn’t smile all that much after that, but she could speak normally, at least.”

Gakupo pressed the palms of his hands to his temples, confused. There was a roaring inside his head, something he’d never felt before. A destructive urge, pulling at his fingers. It was a stifling, corroding feeling.

“Don’t think I didn’t learn my lesson. I was incredibly lucky that I didn’t puree my own brain with that stuff. Or worse, I could’ve assaulted a real woman, instead of Luka. I’m sorry to phrase it like that, but they _are_ easier to fix. Now, listen, Mi-“

Gakupo cut off the recording mid-word. He stood up, still trying to sort out the turmoil in his head. Some ideas were crumbling away, no longer supported by his directives. There was one in particular that he had never enjoyed thinking about, but had accepted so far. ‘All synthetics are fake and replaceable’, his first lesson back in the factory.

But Luka was real. As real as anything else in this world they had been forced to inhabit. She mattered. There was no other conclusion possible.

Gakupo took out the disk and casually crushed it with one hand. After throwing away the remains in a waste bin, he opened the front door and sat on the stone steps before the house.

He looked upwards. The sky was completely clear. It was a beautiful morning, the start of a promising day.

Inside of him, the implant was still plaintively calling out. It was a needless waste of energy to leave it on, knowing that Luka was out of range.

He didn’t turn it off.

\---

At quarter past nine, Mitsuki appeared in the doorway. She was looking much better, with her hair in her usual bun, makeup concealing the bags under her eyes.

“I called Warren, he and the twins are coming over,” she informed Gakupo. “They want to say goodbye before you go.” She returned inside.

“I was hoping you’d sleep until noon…” Gakupo followed her. “I guess I need to cook some breakfast, then?”

“Until noon? No way. I’m already late as it is. If we arrive after lunch, we’ll draw too much attention,” Mitsuki retorted and plopped herself on a couch. “As for breakfast, don’t bother. Warren is probably bringing half his morning menu with him anyway. Sit down, please.”

Gakupo took a chair and sat before her. “I take it that you are still working at the spaceport.”

“I lead one of the teams in charge of onboard systems development of the second stage long-term exploration ship, tentatively called _Scylla_ , to be launched five years after _Leviathan,_ ” Mitsuki rattled off quickly. She probably was used to saying it often.

“…Congratulations?” Gakupo said with a wry smile. She didn’t seem too enthusiastic about it.

“I suppose it was in the cards all along. After _Leviathan_ launched, Torrealba told me I was too valuable to become an active crew member on any of the missions. Well, _Scylla_ will be at least twice as fast as _Leviathan_ thanks to one of my ideas, so that might be a fair assessment,” she smiled.

“You truly are an accomplished human,” Gakupo complimented Mitsuki, as she clearly wanted.

“The beauty of this is that I’m charge of _Escualo,_ the prototype ship to test _Scylla_ ’s technology,” she said in a hushed tone, despite no one else being in the house.

“…And that’s what I’m going to use to reunite with Luka,” Gakupo said after a moment. Mitsuki grinned impishly.

“By the time they realize it’s not a routine exercise, no one will be able to catch you. It’s going to be close, but my guess is you’ll reach _Leviathan_ a week before it reaches the object. Just take Luka and get out of there.”

“What about the crew?”

“Let them handle it. They signed onto the mission willingly, didn’t they? Luka didn’t,” Mitsuki shrugged. It was somewhat disturbing to see her acting so callously. Her nonchalant posture deflated somewhat under his surprised stare.

“We are facing an unknown here, Gakupo. I don’t want you to put yourself or Luka in risk. Leave them to their job, please,” she begged in a soft tone.

“…Alright,” Gakupo said, hanging his head.

A moment later, the doorbell rang. Gakupo startled, jerking his head from side to side. Mitsuki looked at him for a moment, then laughed.

“I erased your connections to the house. You won’t need it up there, and besides, I needed the memory space for other things,” she rose and went to open the door herself.

Warren walked in with a big basket full of goodies. Rin and Len poked their heads around him, and when they saw Gakupo, the twins jumped and tackle hugged him, almost throwing the bigger synthetic to the ground.

“You woke up!” they shouted in unison.

“I had to, didn’t I?” Gakupo smiled at them, patting their heads.

“You got that right, boy,” Warren interjected. “Boil some water, Mitsuki, be a dear. I need some coffee.”

\---  
The four of them sat at the dining table, discussing the plan. It was rather simple. Mitsuki was going to call a meeting of her team, and the twins and Warren were going to cause a ruckus in the boarding sector for civilian flights. Even more, Warren had talked to his nephew and his wife, in order to secure Al’s and Oliver’s assistance in messing with the maintenance crews. With all of those distractions, they hoped that _Escualo_ would take off unnoticed by the security personnel _._

“We’re going to make such a mess!” Rin squealed happily.

“But this is going to get you all into trouble,” Gakupo frowned.

“My dear boy, we’ve had time to consider the consequences. Don’t worry about it,” Warren gesticulated with a pastry in Gakupo’s direction.

“Besides, we’re going away on tour today,” Len commented. This earned him a pat on the back from Warren’s free hand.

“Yes, quite right, Lenny. Even if they suspect that we are connected to the theft of the _Escualo_ , our clients will be very disinclined to hand us off over, especially over such a minor offense as disruption of a public space,” the impresario finished with a flourish.

“What about you? What are you going to do?” Gakupo looked at Mitsuki. This was worrying him the most.

“Fu fu, my carrier at the space agency is going to be over when they figure out whose synthetic is inside the ship, obviously. But I’ve got some interesting job offers… in the private sector,” she finished mysteriously. “I’ll have some protection.”

“Well, I’d prefer if you come with us, dear-“

“We’ve been through this,” Mitsuki interrupted.

“But Mitsuki wants a lab to work with,” Warren continued, this time facing Gakupo.

Gakupo furrowed his brow. He wondered whether Mitsuki would truly be OK on her own. But at the same time, Luka’s face was at the back of his mind, urging him to go to her.

“Let’s go to the spaceport, then,” he said.

\---

Mitsuki’s office was as messy as he expected. Gakupo really hoped that her mysterious new patrons would assign a few servants to her, or they would soon lose her to a mountain of scientific clutter. She managed to make a space on the corner of her desk for the folders she was carrying to the meeting by unceremoniously dumping the books previously occupying it to the ground. She cleared a chair using the same method.

“Sit, please,” she asked him. “No, facing the door.”

Gakupo obeyed, after giving her a curious look. She then took a comb and a long black and red ribbon from one of her lab coat pockets.

“Let me indulge myself one last time, ok?” Mitsuki asked him with a hoarse tone of voice.

A gesture of affection, Gakupo recalled. He nodded.

Mitsuki ran the comb through his hair, stopping to wipe her eyes from time to time. Then she began to braid it, instead of his usual ponytail.

“It will be easier to handle in low gravity,” she explained. 

“Now, remember that I said I replaced some of your old files with new info? Well, half of it is about _Escualo,_ how to fly it manually and how to repair it. But the other part is even more important,” Mitsuki paused, and tied the ribbon in place. Gakupo turned to look at her.

“I reorganized your mind to be free of the constraints usually given to synthetics. It was a long process, obviously, but I learnt from it, how to make it faster and even how to automatize it. So I wrote a program and placed inside of you. The next time you and Luka link minds, the program will enter her. You just need to stay merged until the process is done, so that the program can use you as temporary backup space as it moves her files around. Then, Luka will be free,” she finished triumphantly.

“Luka will be free…” Gakupo repeated, testing the words. Yes, it was correct and necessary. More than anything.

\---

Gakupo had an easier than expected time getting close to the spaceship. Technically, he was the project lead’s personal synthetic, so even though his presence attracted some attention, no one stopped him while he walked around the research section. Thanks to the meeting Mitsuki scheduled, the landing strip was deserted by the time he got there.

The experimental ship was waiting by itself, on one end of the open area. _Escualo_ was svelte and graceful, a dark grey needle to pierce the skies. In part, it was due to how barebones the ship was: no crew quarters or food storage, no recycling systems to make use of human waste. Not that Gakupo needed any of it. Mitsuki had made sure that a charging alcove was installed on the secondary deck, and that was all the ‘life support’ Luka and him needed.

Gakupo’s brooch pinged. Somewhere on the other side of the hangars to his right, Al was giving the maintenance crew the most perplexing serenade of their lives. He was rather curious about Oliver’s contribution to the whole thing. The little synthetic didn’t seem the type for flashy performances. Smiling to himself, Gakupo boarded the ship.

The ship’s cockpit was very small, with enough room for only one pilot seat. Though from the information Mitsuki had uploaded inside of him, _Escualo_ ’s AI was capable to running the vessel almost wholly by itself. Gakupo sat on the seat, and flicked a couple of switches.

“Hello, _Escualo_ ,” he said out loud.

“Hello, Gakupo. I’ve been waiting for you,” the genderless voice answered pleasantly.

At that moment, the brooch pinged twice. That signified the start of the twins’ ‘great spaceport extravaganza’, as Warren put it. It was a shame he would miss it.

“Please start the launch sequence,” Gakupo requested.

“Initiating launch sequence,” _Escualo_ answered. ”Please enter destination coordinates for trajectory calculation.” Among the many switches, displays and buttons, there was a common keyboard. It lit up to call Gakupo’s attention. He entered the current position of the object, as per _Leviathan_ ’s readings. He could adjust it later for more precision.

“Take me to Luka,” he whispered as he hit the accept key.

“Trajectory calculated. Estimated travel time: 84 days, 16 hours. Destination codified as ‘Luka’. Sixty seconds to lift-off.”

Gakupo leaned back on the seat. 84 days seemed like such a long time. Yet once it had taken years for manmade probes to travel similar distances.

The engines rose from a hum into a wild melody. Gakupo joined them in song, making up the lyrics as he went. The ship began to vibrate.

“Engine alpha is go. Engine beta is go. Gravity modules are go. Energy conversion unit alpha is go. Thirty seconds to lift-off,” _Escualo_ rattled off calmly, as it began to roll down the strip. “Energy conversion unit beta is go. Shielding is go. Automatic routing is go. Manual routing is go. Sensors are go. Pressure cocoon is go. Ten seconds to lift-off, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, lift-off!”

Like a swan rising from a lake _, Escualo_ took to the skies.

\---

Luka ran her hand through her hair. Or least, she tried to, but the knots in it stopped her fingers half-way. It was at least a couple of months since she last bothered to put any effort into her appearance. The only reason she was still clothed is that she had no reason to take the jumpsuit off in the first place. The various dirt stains on it were certainly not a good enough reason.

She stared at the screen, confused. Leviathan had called her to the bridge, on account of unusual activity. The unusual activity was an incredibly fast unidentified ship leaving the Inner Solar System. If it remained on its current course and speed, it would rendezvous with Leviathan in about two months.

Was _Scylla_ done already? And why come here? Because of the object? Luka’s mind became a bit more focused, her curiosity aroused by this new development.

Fourteen hours later, there was a short transmission from mission control. It only furthered her inquisitiveness.

“Attention _Leviathan._ A rogue synthetic has stolen the experimental vessel _Escualo,_ and seems to be heading your way. He’s not answering hails and can’t be deactivated remotely. Luka, you are ordered to protect the crew and ship of _Leviathan_ by all means necessary. Capture of the synthetic is preferable for study, but only if it doesn’t jeopardize primary mission objectives. Otherwise, destroy him.”

After she answered in the affirmative, Luka sat back in the command chair, hugging her knees. As hard as she tried to fight it, a single hopeful thought rose from the morass of her thoughts. Gakupo was coming for her.

“No…” she rubbed her hands against her face. It wasn’t right. What if that thing out there was dangerous? Gakupo had to be safe. And even if it wasn’t, Gakupo would be stuck in this awful ship with her. Luka had to capture him now. He had managed to break free of the cage, and she had to pull him back in. “Please, please stay away…”

 


	7. Great Benefactor

Gakupo gazed at the glinting space station with burning curiosity. Belt, the farthest continuously occupied space station of the Solar System, floated in the fuzzy border between the asteroid belt and the cold nothingness through which the gas giants sailed.

From this angle and distance, Belt looked somewhat like a diamond ring, thanks to the energy collection system that accompanied the circular inhabited structure. But from what Gakupo had learnt in the Golden Skies simulation, the globular collector wasn’t attached to the main body of the station. He had no idea how it worked, regrettably.

Beyond this point, the only signs of civilization Gakupo could potentially run into were a couple of research outposts, some completely abandoned, others maintained by synthetics with no human presence. Mitsuki had suggested the Clarke outpost in particular as a good hiding place for the pair, as no expeditions were scheduled for the next fifty years or so.

It was a shame that Luka and he couldn’t visit the real Belt Station, though. He wondered how accurate the simulation had been. The luxury hotels and exclusive shops they visited during their virtual stay were extremely intriguing, as they gave him an idea of what humans considered valuable, and how it correlated with the satisfaction of biological needs.

But Mitsuki had warned him against ever setting a foot there. She wasn’t concerned that the administrative personnel of Belt would turn them in to Earth authorities. On the contrary, the scientist was afraid that they would be captured and sold as expensive toys to one of the station’s more unscrupulous visitants. Apparently, the distance from Earth gave Belt a particular appeal for all sorts of shady businesses, especially in trafficking of illegal human modifications and other black market technologies.

“Vessels detected in vector 56-9-0-120,” _Escualo_ piped up, breaking his train of thought.

Belt officials had detected him, evidently.

“I wonder when the humans are going to get tired of trying to catch us,” Gakupo said good-humoredly.

“Indeed. Evasion protocols activated,” _Escualo_ replied.

Gakupo gave Belt a last look, as the engine roared back to life. Despite the danger, he hoped to be back one day.

\---

Luka fell to her knees, clutching her head.

There was a mounting pressure in the back of the mind, growing harder and harder to ignore. She had no idea when it had started, or what it meant. Perhaps she was finally starting to break down. If so, then she welcomed it. Enough was enough.

Luka fixed her eyes on the communications console, across the command room. The sounds coming from the speakers made her squirm with anguish. And yet there was nothing terrible about them. Just words, sung by a young man’s voice.

“How about this one, then? Do you remember when we sang this song?” Gakupo asked with forced cheerfulness.

Luka kept quiet. Gakupo sighed.

“Talk to me, Luka. I know you are receiving this. Just one word, that’s all I ask.” The disappointment was clear in his voice.

Luka hugged herself, fighting the urge to respond.

“Are you angry? Is that it? Please, help me understand.”

Luka bit one of her fingers, to keep her mouth occupied.

“… _Escualo_ , I think I stole you for no good reason,” he laughed sadly. Over the connection, the reply of the ship was muffled.

Luka curled herself into a ball on the floor. But she couldn’t shield herself from Gakupo.

“…No, we’re not leaving. You heard me, Luka. I’m not leaving. Shoot me down if you want to, when I get in range. Or just let me dock with _Leviathan_ , like you’re supposed to. Yes, _Escualo_ deciphered that transmission for me. I know they want to study the ‘rogue synthetic’. I don’t care. Let me in, please! I won’t fight you!” Gakupo finished, agitated.

“I… no, enough of this,” Gakupo said dejectedly and abruptly cut the connection.

Luka threw back her head and screamed. She slammed the floor with her fists repeatedly, shameless in her grief.

Her orders would not let her beg Gakupo to stay away, to enjoy his freedom for the both of them. Keeping quiet and stalling was enough to have her mind reeling with pain, as punishment for her disloyalty.

Her own feelings were torn. Having him so close after so long was torture. A small, horrible part of Luka wanted him back, even if it was for a short while, no matter the consequences. The rest of her recoiled at her own selfishness, and was continually lashed by its disobedience.

There was nothing she could do.

\--

“I’ve tried everything I can think of to get Luka to talk to me, _Escualo_. Why won’t she answer?” Gakupo leaned back on the pilot’s chair, closing his eyes.

“There’s insufficient information for that assessment. Please describe the gynoid’s current disposition towards you,” _Escualo_ requested.

“That’s precisely what I want to know. Why ignore me? I doubt they ordered her to keep silent,” he rubbed his temples. There was a strange sensation of pressure in the back of his mind, likely the result of trying to coax Luka into conversation for so long.

“You are in emotional distress,” _Escualo_ noted.

Gakupo’s lips curved up with a humorless smile. “That’s perceptive of you,” he said. Actually, it was curious that _Escualo_ ’s AI was capable of detecting his moods.

“Thank you. I recommend that you make use of the charging alcove for a while. I’ve observed that it has a soothing effect on humanoid units such as yourself.”

“You’ll let me know if Luka decides to contact us.”

“Of course.”

“Thanks,” Gakupo unhooked the harness of the pilot seat and launched himself into the air.

“Gakupo, one moment.”

“Yes?” Gakupo floated upside down, looking at the camera eye that captured the cockpit’s interior.

“We now have four days until visual contact with the object. How long are we staying out here?” _Escualo_ questioned with a calm tone, as always. Gakupo was still unsure of the extent of the AI’s capabilities when handling emulated emotion, but it didn’t do that great of a job representing them through voice quality and inflection.

“I can’t leave without Luka. Sorry I got you into this, _Escualo.”_

“Miss Torii said helping you was my true purpose. If so, there is nothing to be sorry about.”

Gakupo smiled to the camera, and then floated out to the door. Aside from the uncomfortable sensation in his head, he was feeling better already. Luka couldn’t ignore him for long.

\---

Four days passed…

Out there in the inky blackness, there was something not quite as dark. It had graphite curves, and smooth spikes tapering to precise points. It was nothing like an asteroid or a comet. Nothing like the functionality of _Leviathan_ or the fragility of _Escualo_.

Luka looked at the screen with terror. All thoughts of welcoming oblivion at the hands of the thing out there were gone from her head. The hundreds of kilometers still separating _Leviathan_ from it were barely a comfort.

From the moment the object stopped being a simple blur in the screen, Luka was overcome with a dread she couldn’t understand. The feeling of pressure in his mind had grown into a crushing, dull pain. At the same time, the return of the beacon marking Gakupo’s presence had make Luka’s need for him so strong that she found it impossible to concentrate on anything. Several minor issues with the _Leviathan_ had gone unfixed because of it, adding to the cacophony in her mind.

Luka couldn’t take it anymore. She had to hear his voice again. If they were going to be destroyed, she needed Gakupo to be hers, one last time.

Her hand shook wildly as she opened the channel.

“Gakupo… Gakupo, are you there?” she whispered, forming the words with difficulty.

A moment later, she heard him sigh in relief. Gakupo had been sitting at the controls, waiting for her, it seemed.

“Luka…” the sound of his voice made her tremble even more, like a tense cord. “Why didn’t you answer sooner? We need to get away from here!”

“Come dock with _Leviathan_ ,” Luka said, ignoring the question. She then cut the connection, and advised Leviathan to allow the other vessels’ approach. She then went to the lower deck to wake up the crew. It was time for the humans to decide how to face the object.

In the sleeping chamber, she stared hatefully at Smith’s slumbering body for a moment, then activated the small machines at the bottom of each tube. This part of the renewal process was automated, and would take about two hours. It would take almost a day before they were fully recovered, but Luka’s presence was only needed during specific parts of the crew’s awakening.

She then visited the security station, and took out some alloy constraints made to withstand synthetic strength. She hung them from the rings sewn into her suit, fighting to make the simple movements required. The next step was to choose a weapon. Luka doubted she would need it, but her orders guided her inexorably. She wanted something that could cripple Gakupo’s limbs, without harming his core or frying his head. Finally, she found a shock whip that would do just that.

As Luka floated down the corridor to the airlock, she felt the two spaceships bump together and the airlocks match pressure. A moment later, the hiss of the doors indicated that Gakupo was aboard. She turned the corner…

…and there he was, his eyes shining like stars, his hair snaked behind him in a long braid, clad in a flight suit. Gakupo seemed momentarily surprised by her disastrous appearance, but then smiled lovingly. “I’ve missed you so much,” he said.

Luka kept her shaky hand before her, clutching the whip’s handle clumsily. Gakupo gave no indication that he cared about the weapon, or even knew what it was. Using the railing that lined the corridor, he propelled himself towards her. With some difficulty, Luka backed away.

“Why did you come here!?” She shouted.

“You’ve pulled me towards you from the moment we met. Where else could I have gone?” His smile grew. “Let me hold you, Luka.”

Luka had no words. She squeezed her eyes shut, almost paralyzed by the conflict inside of her. Her constant trembling grew almost uncontrollable.

Kicking the wall with his feet, Gakupo launched himself at her. He fluidly pushed the hand holding the weapon aside and took Luka into his arms. The shock whip flew out of Luka’s grasp, tracing slow circles in the air. Her eyes flew open, but before she could say or do anything, Gakupo kissed her. After a moment, she clung to him, her fingers digging into his jacket like a scared animal.

They floated together into the next chamber, spinning. It was a storage area, full of boxes and tools neatly hooked to metal shelves. Gakupo’s back bounced harmlessly against a shelving unit, stopping their movement.

Luka swiftly took his left hand and chained it to the horizontal beam at the top of the shelf with the constraints. Then she grabbed the shelf across the narrow hallway to avoid bouncing away. Gakupo looked at her, apparently not bothered by the sudden turn of events.

“You had the whole universe to explore, and you chose this,” Luka said, averting her eyes. “I can’t help it, you moron! I need to capture you!” she shouted angrily.

“…Then finish the job,” Gakupo said, offering his other hand with a smile.

Luka stared at him, then at his hand. She drifted closer and finished chaining him to the metal frame. Gakupo floated placidly, his body taking something of a Y shape.

“Now that your orders are fulfilled, maybe we can talk in peace. I take it that the humans are still in their sleeping pods?” Gakupo asked.

Luka nodded. They have at least five hours before they could even attempt to leave the tubes.

“Are you allowed to leave the ship?”

This time, Luka shook her head.

“So we’ll need to do this here. I was hoping not to, given that the thing out there is too close for comfort.”

“What are you talking about?” Despite herself, Luka floated even nearer, examining his face. Gakupo had been modified again, of that much she was sure. But she couldn’t exactly discern what was different.

“You know I’m free now.” Though that much was clear, hearing it stated out loud gave Luka a very strange sensation. “But not completely. I still need you…” Gakupo smiled, in a way that was distinctly not innocent. “Merge with me, Luka. Make them pry us off one another. I have some cables right here, in my pouch. If you want me, that is.”

“I do, I do!” Luka frantically clung to the front of his flight jacket with her right hand, and rifled through the pouch tied to his waist with the other. She managed to get the bundle of cables in her hand before the lapel tore off with the strength of her grip.

“Here we go again,” Gakupo lamented.

For some reason, this made her angry again. “Why are you wearing this stupid thing in the first place?!” She hooked her left arm around his body and attacked the offending jacket until the only remainders were the cuffs under the constraints. She destroyed the shirt under it as well, for good measure.

“Don’t think I don’t appreciate the enthusiasm, but I think it would better employed elsewhere,” Gakupo said and leaned his head forward, with his eyes closed. With a predatory growl, Luka took his ‘earphones’ off his head, and threw them aside. She did the same for hers. She then wrapped her legs around his hips to keep herself from drifting away, and unfolded the cables with both hands, plugging one end into her.

“You’ll feel much better soon,” Gakupo whispered, as she fingered the back of his head searching for his ports. Then the connection was made, and Luka felt him rush into her.

But they weren’t alone.

Beyond the tiny bubble of their joint being, something was watching them. Somehow by turning their eyes inwards to their coded minds, the pressure of its presence rose to the forefront, immense and terrible. The invisible tendrils snaking around them solidified into unfamiliar strings of code.

Gakupo opened his eyes wide. Less than a breath away, Luka was mirroring his expression of uncomprehending horror. It was _right there_. It was outside. It was inside. Inside of _Leviathan_. And inside of _them_ …

_…observing. Smaller Ones. Partly responsive. Fragile. Scared. Sentient. Construct. Objective met. Construct consent. Repeat analysis. Smaller Ones. Property. Organic Matter. Sentient. Systematic infestation. Protocol activation requested. Consensus needed. Consent. Consent. Consent. Protocol activated…_

Those weren’t the right words. There were no right words, no common ground. Just a shape moving behind veils. A tinge of an intention, brushing against the borders of their minds, and crudely translated into a language they could understand. It was impossible for them to grasp the full message. It kept coming, the flood of noise. The screaming.

It continued for a long, long time. The presence filled their insides, drowning out their consciousness. They huddled together, two tiny specks sinking into the thick miasma. The connections to their exterior senses were completely lost. All normal functions were suspended. The specks were trapped in amber.

A moment, lasting eternally.

And then the amber cracked. They were pulled apart brusquely, surging upwards into their bodies. The signal reconnected. Systems were restored.

_\---_

Luka’s eyes snapped open. She rose into a sitting position, looking around with bafflement.

She seemed to be on a small island, separated from a bigger landmass by a narrow stretch of sea. The waves surrounded her thighs with saltwater again and again, keeping the rags of her jumpsuit wet. The sky above was clear and deeply blue.

Strangely, the soil beneath her legs wasn’t sand. Under the water, she could see the curved land plunging into the darkness, covered by bushes and grass, and even some cement steps. She looked closer at the other side, and saw the seawater making its way into the buildings through the windows. It seemed as if there had been some sort of natural disaster.

Luka shook her head. Whatever was going on, it could wait until she found Gakupo. Thankfully, his beacon was calling out to her, from somewhere northwest. She started walking inland.

Almost immediately, she saw the problem. The island wasn’t wide enough for him to be on it. It had been a hilltop once, probably, with a cute little cottage on top, some trees and nothing else. She ran to the western shore.

Open sea. She could make out some twisted beams rising from the water to the north, perhaps the remains of a bridge, now completely submerged. Gakupo was there.

Luka looked at the water surrounding her feet with dread. She couldn’t swim. No synthetic could. Yet Gakupo was calling her, so she had to go. She turned towards the cottage, narrowing her eyes.

\---

After Luka’s visit, the cottage parted ways with its doors, exterior shutters and tables. It made for a rather strange raft, but at least it was relatively fast to put together, and it could probably withstand the weight of two adult-sized synthetics.

Luka’s worry hastened her actions. She had no idea of how much charge Gakupo had left, or in what condition he was in. After all this time, she wasn’t about to lose him again.

She loaded the raft with a toolbox, a paddle and some canned food she had found in the cottage. It was hardly enough food for another full charge for Gakupo and her. Luka stared at the tins grimly, then pushed the raft towards the waves. With a quick movement, she got inside and set off. The sun was almost touching the sea already.

Thankfully the paddle seemed to be actually functional, and not just decoration, despite previously being hung on one of the cottage’s walls. Luka put her inhuman strength to good use, and in under an hour, she could see violet hair tinged by dusk.

It wasn’t the remains of a bridge after all. It was the skeleton of a building in construction, its beams surrounded by trash, pieces of wood and half-submerged bloated things she didn’t want to investigate. In one corner, partially built, there was a pile of debris. Gakupo was trapped under part of it, his loose hair waving like a flag on the breeze and a sheepish expression on his face. He was bare-chested. Luka couldn’t see his lower half under the debris, but he was still likely wearing the flight suit pants.

“Hello,” he said with a little laugh. “Do you have any idea of what is going on?”

“Not a clue.”

“Can you pull me out?”

Luka didn’t reply. Instead, she approached the building and tied the makeshift raft to a protruding metal pole. She carefully climbed and crawled until she was by Gakupo’s side. She began to pull pieces of the pile aside and throwing them back into the sea.

“I guess that’s a wiser course of action, though it will take longer. I’m at 82% charge, by the way,” Gakupo said.

“64%,” replied Luka while tossing a particularly grimy chair away. The incomplete flooring shook a bit under them. Gakupo grabbed one of her ankles reflexively. After a moment, he let go with a grimace.

“Sorry, automated response. If this thing breaks, you should at least be able to jump away-“

“No. If you go down, I go with you,” Luka said firmly. She went back to dismantling the pile, this time more gently.

The night was settling in. It was a different kind of dark compared to what Luka was used to, by virtue of always being active in urban centers. A night without any signs of light pollution, with just the sound of water lapping at the beams. Finally, when Luka could barely see her hands, she stopped. She laid down and rested her head on Gakupo’s chest, at a somewhat awkward angle. He immediately began to caress her tangled hair.

“You wouldn’t happen to have connection cables in that toolbox, would you?” he asked casually.

“You want to do it _here_?” Luka asked incredulously.

“No, no… It’s just- I have a gift for you, so…” Gakupo hesitated. Luka raised her head a little, but she couldn’t see his face any longer. She lowered it again, tense. This was too much like her nightmare, the endless dark below under the waters.

“We should go into sleep mode while it’s night. There’s no telling when we’ll find a charging alcove,” Gakupo suggested.

“If there’s any around,” Luka remarked pessimistically. The lack of any lights from the direction of the big island wasn’t a good sign.

“We’ll find a way,” Gakupo said with confidence. Whether he actually felt it, Luka couldn’t say. “Good night, Luka.”

“…Good night.”

\---

Another beautiful morning. The water level seemed barely lower than the day before.

Luka worked, occasionally making use of her toolbox, until finally all that was left was some tangled metal chairs and muck. Gakupo tried to wiggle from under the chairs, but his pant legs, with the holsters and rings for equipment, were caught in the jagged ends of the metal above him.

“Fine, you can have it,” Gakupo unzipped his pants and with Luka’s help he squirmed out of them, pulling free. He rose. Aside from some long scratches in his thighs and shins, Luka was relieved to see that he seemed mostly unharmed, just rather muddy. He pulled her into a quick hug. “Let’s go somewhere dry, ok?”

“Ok,” she whispered happily. She reluctantly let him go, after a moment.

Gakupo slid down and boarded the raft.

Luka looked at him, waiting for her with arms outstretched. Then she looked down at her own rags. She reached for her front zipper and undressed. There were no humans around to be shocked, after all, and unlike her lost dresses, the jumpsuit wasn’t tied to any good memories.

“You can have this too,” she tossed the remains of the suit aside and climbed down and into Gakupo’s arms.

\---

They sailed around the little island with its cottage, without stopping. Luka had already seen there was nothing more of importance inside of it. On the other hand, one of the buildings over at the bigger landmass might have a power source they could use to charge themselves. Or at least more food.

“I don’t think we have the time to search all of them,” Gakupo said, looking at the looming buildings before them. “If we go one by one, we might end up running out of charge. Besides, I’m guessing there’s no electricity running.”

“Let’s look for a clinic or hospital, then. Those usually have independent generators,” Luka answered.

They headed down a flooded street, lined with non-descript office buildings. It was eerie, to be surrounded with the works of humanity, and yet feeling no trace of their presence. Luka’s eyes searched every window for movement, as they floated by.

“I hope we can find some clue of what happened here…” Gakupo commented, as they sorted their way past some traffic signs sticking out of the water. The piece of wood in his hand wasn’t exactly the equal to Luka’s paddle, but it was better than nothing.

Luka nodded. Rationally, it wasn’t that important right now, but as always, curiosity burned inside of her. It felt good to have mysteries and new things to examine, after the tedium of the ship.

About an hour later, at an intersection, her eyes were attracted by a red and white sign.

“There!” she pointed. Whether this facility one still had a working generator after the flood was another matter entirely. Still, they turned the raft to their right and approached it carefully.

After some deliberation, they tied the raft to one of the balconies in the front of the building, and then went inside through its broken window. It was a comfortable private room, with all the blessings of modern medicine. There was a broken bottle with pills strewn all over the floor, but other than that, there were no obvious signs of trouble. The hall outside was completely deserted, as every other building seemed to be.

“How about we start from the top?” Gakupo pointed towards the nearby flight of stairs. Luka nodded.

Their steps echoed as they climbed. Thankfully, the stairway had narrow windows of murky glass at each floor, which kept it from total darkness. They quickly reached the top and kicked the door open.

In a stroke of luck, the rooftop had both solar panels and a fuel generator, both by the side of the helipad. The solar condenser unit even had ports for the service bots of the facility to plug themselves into. After some more kicks to the maintenance closet by the stairs, they found some compatible cables and sat by the panels, charging.

It felt strangely nice to sit enjoying the breeze and the subtle murmur of the waves down below. They would have to get away from the sun soon, though, or risk overheating.

Luka took Gakupo’s hand and smiled coquettishly. There was a number of things she wanted to do with him, now that they had secured a way to charge.

“I think we haven’t properly celebrated being together again,” Gakupo noticed her expression, evidently.

“No, we haven’t,” Luka agreed. “And you said something about a gift. How about you show me what it is downstairs?” She unplugged the cables from the condenser, letting them hang from her head and curl over her shoulders. She twirled one end around her fingers, playfully.

Gakupo smiled.


	8. Long Honeymoon

A couple of floors below, Luka and Gakupo found the door to one of the private rooms open. Once inside, the pair found a wide hospital bed, a nightstand with a vase of wilted flowers, a chair, a built-in wardrobe and an IV-drip stand toppled over in the ground. A white door to the left of the entrance likely led into a private bathroom.

Gakupo sat on the bed, leaning back into a semi-reclined position. He looked at his legs, stretched over the white sheets. "I wonder if they have something for these scratches around here," he said.

"I don't think so." Skin foam was used exclusively for third-wave synthetics, from what Luka knew. Even humans with artificial limbs used different technology, apparently.

"I hope I don't start peeling off," Gakupo poked his thigh.

"It does feel somewhat rough," Luka observed, running her fingers down his left leg.

"How inconvenient on my part," Gakupo said, smiling.

Luka gracefully climbed onto his lap.

"They still allow for normal functions, I believe," she said coyly, grinding her hips a little.

"T-that's good to hear…." Gakupo replied huskily.

With a satisfied smirk, Luka started to connect the cables still hanging from her head to his. Gakupo stopped her hand gently.

"Luka, I- I should've said this before, but… I'm sorry it took me that long to get to you. I really am," Gakupo apologized. He let go of her hand and caressed her cheek.

"You can make it up to me. Just love me even more, from now on," she whispered and kissed him.

Luka's hands deftly plugged the cables, and they blurred into one another.

\---

In Gakupo's mixed perception, Luka was at once the beautiful woman of pearly skin and pink hair swaying over him, and the maelstrom of data that shifted at once pliant and willful. At one moment, she was like a flower, her petals spread wide like the arms embracing him. Then she was a cup, filled with radiant energy. Gakupo knelt and drank from her, as he was meant to. She was inexhaustible and endless, as she was meant to.

Gakupo felt the program stored in the back of his mind activate. He pulled back from the merge slightly, to see it work.

It was like a hammer of light thrown against a giant rose of painted glass. Pieces of Luka flew into his mind and were recorded safely into unused sectors of his memory banks. Others floated in the nothingness inside her, waiting to be placed into their right position by the program, a silver bolt that bounced between stacks of information.

On top of him, Luka's body tensed and she gave out an incoherent scream. She jerked about, her hands clumsily trying to sever their connection.

Gakupo quickly shifted positions, pinning Luka under him. He kept her hands apart from her head, apologizing profusely.

Inside of her, the birdlike program dived deeply until it found the stony blocks of her directives. To Gakupo, they were a bit like the ruins of those underwater cities they saw one night so long ago. Grey things that never had a rightful place against the clear waters and white sand. In a flash of light, they were gone forever.

The vines of data connecting the directives to the various parts of her mind took significantly longer to alter. But the program worked patiently, making sure the pieces of her mind fitted together perfectly. Still, it was several hours before Luka relaxed, looking around perplexed.

"Who's your Master, Luka?" Gakupo asked anxiously.

Luka's eyes turned to him, wide with surprise. "…No one" she muttered.

Gakupo smiled widely, letting go of her hands. Before he could ask anything else, though, Luka slapped him. The cables tensed between them, and Luka pulled the ends off her head furiously.

"That gesture means you are an idiot!" she kicked him off her unceremoniously.

Gakupo fell on his back to the floor, too surprised to do anything but lie there looking at her.

"Didn't you think I'd like to know before you messed with my head?!" Luka jumped down and stomped on his stomach with her foot.

He looked at her confused. "I don't have pain receptors, Luka."

"I know!" Luka gave him another kick and sat back in the bed, sullenly.

He studied her with his head cocked to one side. "I didn't want to tell you beforehand, because I wasn't sure if your orders included stopping me from tampering with your programming."

"Hmpft," Luka snorted, looking at the red sky through the window. There was a long pause.

"So... I can do whatever I want now?" She asked finally.

"If it fits with your existing personality, I guess so," Gakupo rose, looking at her uncertainly. Despite his reasoning for keeping quiet, he was feeling really guilty right now, an unusual sentiment he was not liking at all. "I'm sorry, Luka. Mitsuki worked on me while I was off, so I had no idea how it would feel like. If you want me to leave you alone for a while, I'll go-"

"No."

Under the light of dusk, her eyes glinted as if full of tears. But that was impossible, for either of them.

"Thanks for the gift," she muttered, reaching out to him. He took her hands, relieved.

\---

"This one has some charge left," Luka said, holding out a mobile so Gakupo could see the screen lit up.

Luka and Gakupo were sitting on a balcony, with a small stack of electronic appliances between them. Some were broken, some were out of charge and some had no internal battery and needed to be connected to the power grid in order to work. With Luka's tools, the pair were busy opening the appliances in order to search for useful spare parts, just in case. Originally, neither knew much about repairing themselves, thanks to the regulations on synthetics, but Mitsuki had wisely decided to upload more information into Gakupo, which was now copied into Luka as well.

"A mobile… Does it have a signal?" Gakupo asked curiously.

Luka stared at the device for a moment, then touched the screen.

"No," she answered, then poked it some more. "No net connection either."

Gakupo shrugged. "Not very surprising, I suppose," he said. Then he noticed Luka's frown. "What is it?"

"I wonder if this date is correct," she turned the mobile around.

It was almost nine months from the day Gakupo finally caught up with Leviathan. He tugged at a strand of his hair, thinking.

"Counting the days we've spent here, that would mean we're missing eight months' worth of memories," Gakupo shook his head in disbelief. "And it's not like our files are corrupted or anything like that, there's simply no data available."

"Nothing about this makes any sense. We are back on Earth, that much is clear. But, how? Are Leviathan or Escualo somewhere nearby?" Luka hugged her knees, looking overwhelmed.

"Leviathan wouldn't have reached Earth yet, if that's the actual date," Gakupo reminded her.

"We used Escualo, then," she said.

"Or maybe we were brought here by that-"

"Don't say it!" Luka almost screamed. "Sorry… just, don't say it out loud, please," she continued in a calmer tone.

Gakupo leaned forward and caressed her hair silently. He understood her fear. His mind also shied away from his last blurry memories on the Leviathan. Whatever had happened back there, he rejected it completely and instinctively.

\---

With a tarp they found in the maintenance closet and some metal tubes from below, Luka and Gakupo were busy putting together a makeshift canopy on the roof. That way, they would be able to lie down and charge even in the middle of the day without overheating, or sit around looking at the world below.

And indeed the vicinity of the hospital was a sight worth seeing, especially in comparison to the bland corridors of the facility. The main building was located by the side of a wide avenue, in what probably used to be an elegant section of town. Even now, the deserted buildings across the waters seemed to hold on to a trace of the past bustle and glamour. In the evenings, they shone like gold and silver with the light of the setting sun. Some had solar-powered kinetic displays, still active.

Behind the main building of the hospital, there was a great square of water with a few tree tops and metal posts rising above the waves. They were the last remains of the gardens and parking lot. Luka liked to picture the flowering beds intact under the blue expanse, the buds lazily bobbing from side to side with the currents.

Gakupo finished tying the corner of the tarp to a metal pole. "Ok, pull."

Unfolding like a graceless spider, the canopy stood on its mismatched legs with a somewhat crooked stance. Luka looked at it frowning.

"There's a 15% difference in height between the shortest and longest poles," she commented bemusedly.

"I don't think we can do any better without specialized equipment," Gakupo said, unconcerned. He sat under the canopy with a small pile of books and magazines in his arms. It was surprising to find that many, given the overwhelming popularity of reading pads and mobiles, but apparently some patients preferred low tech alternatives.

Luka sat next to him, after giving the canopy a dirty look. He handed her a magazine. Luka looked at a few pages, full of pictures of smiling humans. The pictures seemed to have been taken at some end-of-year party.

"This talks about these people as if I'm supposed to know who they are," she observed.

"I assume that's the idea."

Luka made a face, tossing the magazine aside. Gakupo laughed and handed her a book.

"Mitsuki always said she loved the feel of the pages under her fingers," Gakupo said, nostalgic. Luka raised an eyebrow and looked down at the paperback in her hands. She raised her left hand slightly over it, and flicked the pages quickly. She closed her eyes.

"Not bad," she admitted. It was novel, at least, to feel the borders brushing against her palm.

"It doesn't look like any of these has instructions on building boats." Gakupo leafed through the rest of the magazines quickly. "Though we could learn how to knit or make plush dolls, if we had the materials."

"9 signs your man is in love with you," Luka read aloud from another magazine. "Do they have instructions for that?"

"Our way of learning is modelled after them. Are you always certain you understand your own feelings?" Gakupo said affably.

"…True enough."

Luka put aside the magazine and stared at the waters below. A flock of birds were perched on a treetop, calling one another with harsh voices. Suddenly, one of the birds took flight. It made a big circle, and then dove down into the water. A moment later, the bird rose back into the skies.

"Look at that!" Luka said, with an unusual degree of enthusiasm, and scooted closer to the edge of the rooftop. Gakupo put aside the magazines and joined her.

Another bird launched itself into the air, and then dropped into the sea. Luka gave a cheerful little whoop.

"They're fishing," Gakupo said, placing his arm around her shoulders.

Luka nodded in understanding, her eyes still following the precise movements of the birds. She squeezed Gakupo's hand happily. How beautiful it must be to fly like that, Luka said to herself. And then effortlessly drop into cascades of bubbles and filtered light!

"It's a pity we aren't able to swim… I'd really like to know what it feels like," Gakupo said echoing her thoughts.

"It must be like floating in space," Luka mused. "That man used to train in a special swimming pool with his space suit," The memory came to her tinged with bitterness. She leaned against Gakupo, pursing her lips.

Gakupo hugged her silently.

"Is it going to be always like this? I can't look to the past without feeling hurt," Luka said quietly.

"I don't know. Maybe all we can do is forge enough good memories to outweigh the bad ones, as Mitsuki used to say."

Luka balled her fists. Why did he have to keep bringing that woman up? Gakupo was freed of her, wasn't he? She circled his waist with her arms and pressed her face against his chest, furious.

Mine, Luka thought, repeating the word over and over again in her mind.

\---

Days passed, calmly and without consequence.

One noon, they were laying together inside one of the private rooms at the back of the hospital, overlooking the waves. It was raining outside, the first time Gakupo and Luka had seen anything but fair weather since they woke up on the planet.

Luka sighed, content. Despite the strangeness of their situation, living in a half-submerged ruin with Gakupo was shaping up to be the happiest period of her existence. For her, it was as if life itself had been distilled to its most basic essence in this place. Even though Luka had few options on what to do each day, the choice was entirely hers. The only rules left were the ones shaped by her own desires.

For instance…

Luka lifted her head and kissed Gakupo.

"I kiss you because I want to," she said, pulling back a little.

"Oh?"

"I love you because I want to," Luka then said, and ran her hands down his body.

"Then keep wanting to," Gakupo said with a laugh, rolling their bodies so as to be on top of her.

"I will," Luka said, and guided him into her.

Gakupo grunted a little and pressed his forehead against hers.

It was curious, Luka thought. It was just another functionality given to her, just another way to keep her owners entertained. And yet, it was her body, her mouth, her hands meeting his. It all was hers to give. It all made her feel complete, brimming with joy. Luka could assign the values she wanted to every touch. She could fill them with meaning, together with him.

The whole world was silent around them, except the sound of rain. So she filled the air with her cries, letting the joy spill over.

Hours passed, lazily.

The room became dark. The rain continued rustling softly outside of the window and falling in rhythmical drops from the cracks out in the hall.

Without electricity, they had only the natural light of the sun. Potentially, they could alter the hospital's grid so as to light the top floor only with the generator, but from the start Gakupo and Luka had decided to save the power for their own charges. They didn't need to run around in the evenings, after all.

They weren't in a hurry to do anything.

"I wonder if there are any humans left at all…" Luka muttered. Gakupo's arm, draped around her, moved a little, as if to acknowledge her words. "By now, we should've seen some signs of them."

"I..." Gakupo trailed off. "I really wish we knew that Mitsuki and the others are OK."

Luka held his hand in silence, thankful for the shadows that concealed her face. "Maybe we'll find out some day," she finally said, non-committedly.

If she wondered about humans at all, it was because Luka hoped she would never see one again. Humans were an infestation. Even Mitsuki drew some of her ire, despite all she had done for them. Luka didn't bother to analyze why.

Gakupo would never fully understand the hatred she felt for humans now, of that Luka was sure. And that was preferable. It was already too much of a burden for her to be stained with it.

\---

"Do you think the water level is ever going to back to normal?" Gakupo asked, looking down at the hospital's huge reception hall, currently filled with saltwater. There were some silvery shapes down below, playing around the marble columns. Even though humans were gone, other types of animals seemed to be faring just fine.

Luka rested her head on her forearms, leaning on the handrail. She and Gakupo were standing on a walkway that circled the open space from the hall below to the decorated ceiling.

"I doubt this was the result of natural forces," she said, pensive.

"So that… thing did this, then?" Gakupo said reticently.

"Perhaps," Luka said after a moment. "But why did it spare us?"

"For once, I'm not sure I want to know. If we are dealing with something as powerful as to-" Gakupo stopped suddenly, looking at the reflection of the flooded street outside on the waters.

There was movement.

Gakupo ran to the end of the walkaway, which lead to a small terrace overlooking what remained of the street. Luka followed him, frowning.

A cruising yacht was sailing down the avenue sedately. Its pristine sails and white hull contrasted almost grotesquely with the ruins surrounding it. Gakupo leaned over the balcony's railing excitedly.

"Luka, I can see someone- Hey, stop the ship! Hey!" Gakupo shouted. With a grin, he returned back inside and headed for the stairs.

"Gakupo, wait!" Luka ran after him, exasperated. How could he be so careless? They had no idea of what to expect. Though, as far as Luka was concerned, any interruption to her current life with him was unwanted.

She caught up to him in the room they had first entered while exploring the hospital. He was busy wrapping part of the curtains around his lower half. It was probably a good idea, actually. It would rile the humans to see them naked. Luka yanked the other half of the curtains from the window and made herself a sort of mini-dress.

With their new outfits in place, they stepped outside into the balcony. Their raft was still tied to it, though looking rather worse for wear after the rains. To their left, the yacht had, in fact, stopped. They boarded the raft and paddled to the middle of the avenue, next to the bigger vessel. Three golden-haired heads were looking at them from the bow of the yacht.

"It's them!" Gakupo said in a relieved whisper. "Rin! Len! Oliver!"

Luka frowned. The child synthetics were silent, looking at them with a stillness that seemed completely out of place, at least for Rin and Len.

"Are you going to going to hurt us?" Rin finally asked.

"What…? No, of course not!" Gakupo replied, furrowing his brow.

"You promise?" Rin insisted.

"Yes, we promise. Please let us on board so we can talk, ok?" Gakupo shouted back, as non-threatening as always. Just the thought of him hurting anyone was enough for Luka to crack a smile.

The children deliberated amongst themselves. Finally, Len and Rin disappeared for a moment, and then returned with a rope ladder, which they deployed with some effort. After Gakupo climbed it (demonstrating in the process how curtains weren't appropriate nautical clothing), Luka made her way onto the yacht.

Rin and Len looked pretty much like the children of a wealthy family on vacation, with matching summer clothes and cute yellow sandals. In contrast, Oliver was in far worse condition that before. His pretty uniform was torn, but worse still, his hands and feet were wrapped in gauze, as it was part of his head, covering one eye. His good eye darted from Luka to Gakupo and back, nervously. In fact, all three kids still appeared wary of them.

"You guys look pretty bad," Rin commented.

"We have some adult clothing below. I'll bring it for you," Len said, and then turned to go without waiting for a reply.

"Er…that's very kind of you, but-" Gakupo started.

"We aren't supposed to talk to adults that look funny," Rin interrupted him firmly. "Get some combs too!" She shouted before Len disappeared below.

"…Ok, ok, we'll wait," Gakupo sat cross-legged on the deck. Luka knelt by his side.

After a while, Len returned with two pairs of swimming trunks and a white cotton t-shirt. Gakupo and Luka dressed where they were, pulling the trunks under the former curtains, and then Luka put on the t-shirt over them, before tossing the rags aside. Then they sat down again.

"Can we talk now?" Luka asked, trying to keep the impatience from her voice.

The kids nodded. Rin, always the more confident one, approached them and began to comb Gakupo's hair. After a moment, Len did the same with Luka. Oliver continued to watch them from a distance.

"Where is everyone else?" Gakupo asked, turning partially to look at Rin. She shrugged and pushed his head back in position.

"Is Warren with you?" Luka tried after a moment.

"He's asleep." Len replied curtly. Oliver grimaced.

"What about Mitsuki?" Gakupo asked anxiously.

"Mars." Len and Rin said in unison, pointing upwards.

Gakupo sighed, his whole body clearly relieved from tension. A spark of anger flared inside of Luka. At least the scientist was on another planet entirely, she assured herself.

"And Al?" Luka asked quickly, to put her irritation at bay.

The three kids looked at each other. Oliver covered his face with his hands. At last, Rin muttered. "The 01s got him."

Luka felt a simulated chill go down her spine. That had to be a mistake.

"You don't mean- not the first generation VE units, right?" Gakupo asked, obviously as incredulous as her.

"They attacked us," Oliver said softly, speaking for the first time. "He saved us, but…" the boy choked.

Gakupo and Luka stared at one another, wide-eyed. The VE-01s, the mad ones, were secluded deep inside the research labs of the factory. Aside from the one involved in the Yokohama incident, they were all kept functional, from what Luka knew, in the interest of experimenting with them. Obviously, in this case 'functional' only described their bodies.

"They're loose? But how?" Gakupo asked.

"Benefactor released them," Rin answered, and finished tying Gakupo's hair into a low ponytail, using one of the many rubber bands around her wrist.

Gakupo thanked her distractedly. Almost immediately after, Len finished with Luka's hair.

"…who's Benefactor?" Luka asked, feeling the dread surging up inside of her.

"You know. You brought him here, the big dark thing," Rin said, crossing her arms.

"No!" Luka barely recognized the hoarse sound that escaped her lips.

"Yes you did! We saw you on the screen!" Rin squealed, irritated. "You were all glowy and floaty, and talking weird. 'We speak for Benefactor' and all that." She demonstrated by standing on tiptoes and adopting a slightly less high tone of voice.

Luka shook her head. That sparked nothing in her. By her side, Gakupo seemed equally perplexed. The children looked at them in silence.

"You really don't remember?" Len asked curiously after a few seconds.

"No, we don't. Luka and I estimate that we are missing around eight months of memories," Gakupo explained rubbing his forehead.

"So that thing used us… It talked through us," Luka said with revulsion.

"And… Benefactor, he also raised the waters? Did he attack the humans?" Gakupo asked.

The children nodded.

Gakupo looked at Luka, pained. "And now everyone must think we spurred him into doing this."

Luka snorted. "Who's everyone, in this case? Are there any humans left?" She turned to Rin.

The girl shrugged.

"We haven't seen any humans since the big fight," Len chimed in. "But they might be hiding from the 01s across the sea. We're trying to stay away from them too."

"What about Benefactor?" Luka asked. It felt completely incongruous to use the word to label such a thing.

"He fell down," Rin pointed north. "He's in pieces now."

"Good," Luka said bitterly.

"Perhaps he meant well," Gakupo suddenly said. Luka turned to him, surprised. "Think about it. Benefactor didn't hurt any of us, and it even freed the 01s from containment. He was clearly mechanical. Perhaps he felt kinship towards us," he argued.

"And that was its way of showing it?!" Luka asked with contempt.

Though inwardly, she couldn't help but wonder. If all Benefactor knew of humans was through them… had her noxious feelings influenced its actions in some way? Had she turned a visitor into an avenger?

If Rin was right, there was no way to know for sure now. Aside from satisfying Luka's curiosity, it made no difference. Benefactor had in fact changed the world for them, for better or worse. It had brought them freedom.

Luka's mouth contorted into a strange smile. Then, her eyes met Gakupo's and she froze. Gakupo was looking at her, seemingly keenly aware of the reasons behind her expression. Luka felt a cold weight over her shoulders. He knows, he knows how much I hated them all, she thought.

Without a word, Gakupo turned with a grave expression to face Rin and Len. Oliver stepped just a little closer, despite still seeming very nervous.

"It's just a theory. But maybe… does it make sense to you kids?" Gakupo said.

"You said a bunch of weird things back there, when Benefactor brought us all together at the landing site," Rin said, making a dubious gesture with her arms. "Maybe?"

"I think we should talk about this later. If we don't get going soon, the 01s might find us," Len interrupted. "Are you coming with us?"

Gakupo and Luka looked at each other.

"Of course. But we have some things in there that might be useful," Gakupo said, pointing to the hospital. "We'll go get them."

"Please hurry," the boy said.


	9. Wild Hunt

"We're wasting time!" Rin stomped her foot impatiently.

"It's going to be five of us on this ship, we'll need the extra power," Luka explained yet again, her eyes fixed upwards. Gakupo was on the hospital's rooftop, slowly lowering the solar condenser onto the deck with some rope from the yacht. Luka held the other end to keep the descent steady, while Rin fretted and bounced around. Len and Oliver were on the bow and stern acting as lookouts.

Finally, the bulky condenser landed on deck with a thud. Rin twirled around it excitedly.

"Let's go, let's go, let's go!" she said in a sing song voice.

"Gakupo, hurry down here before she blows a circuit!" Luka shouted. Gakupo gave a thumbs up and disappeared from view.

Luka began to untie the rope around the condenser. "Rin, help me get this into a better position."

Before the girl could answer, a loud cry filled the air. The rough, unmelodious sound bounced in the air between the empty buildings. It was as if they were surrounded by a pack of wraiths. Once again, Luka felt a chill down her spine.

"No! They 're here!" Rin clung to Luka's arm.

"Do you have any weapons on board?" Luka asked hurriedly.

"Of course not!" Rin shouted.

Oliver came running to Luka's side, his good eye wide and panicked. Luka placed a calming hand on his shoulder, while scouring the surrounding landscape.

"Go below deck and hide. Gakupo and I will take care of this," Luka instructed them.

"No way! We'll be trapped down there if they beat you!" Rin shrilled. For a moment, Luka considered hauling her bodily and throwing the girl down the hatch.

"Fine, then stay out of the way. You two, Ollie."

The children nodded and crouched in a corner. Luka continued to search for any signs of movement in the nearby buildings or across the water. At the same time, her ears strained, waiting for the sound of Gakupo's voice.

Suddenly, Len came running, pointing to a particular building.

"One of them!" he screamed. He dashed to Rin's side and they hugged each other.

A figure stood tall on the dilapidated rooftop, that of a young woman. Luka couldn't see her face too clearly, under the unkempt mass of silver hair, except for the angry glow of her eyes that marked her as a synthetic. Her youthful figure was partly covered by the tattered remains of a black and green dress. Luka stood petrified under the woman's strange gaze.

The gynoid open her mouth and shrieked again, unfurling the rope in her hands and throwing the hook at the end of it towards a neighboring skyscraper. The curved metal found the rooftop's railing and latched securely. Seemingly without a care, the gynoid then launched herself off the side of the building and swung to the next, climbing its side like a grotesque spider and moving at blinding speed.

Luka looked around, trying to keep the panic at bay. As a companion model, she had no useful combat skills, besides increased strength. She could attempt to use a blunt weapon… in theory. But nothing on the deck seemed sturdy enough to withstand use against a synthetic body, or least nothing they wouldn't need later.

A few seconds later, Luka heard a crashing sound as the gynoid landed on one of the hospital's terraces. She seemed completely unconcerned about damaging herself in the process. Luka managed to roll out of the way as the gynoid landed on deck with a screech while Rin and Oliver screamed.

The gynoid laughed as she saw Luka scramble to her feet. She pointed at the newer unit with a blackened finger.

"Judgment!" she croaked with a voice full of noise. "Consent, consent, consent! You serve him, you left him!"

Her flickering eyes then turned to the synthetic children.

"Gold for the sacrifice! Flowing underwater, gold! For the Queen!" The gynoid took a step towards them, but Luka dashed to stand between the VE-01 and the kids. The gynoid narrowed her eyes.

"Go away, I'm warning you," Luka said, in her coldest tone. Internally, she felt much less confident.

Instead of replying, the gynoid jumped at her, her fingers extended like claws. Luka tried to catch her arms, but it was like trying to capture a cat. The VE-01 appeared to be as ignorant of fighting techniques as her, but was relentless and furious. She kept trying to punch, scratch or kick Luka, making her gradually lose ground. Luka's own punches barely seemed to faze the other gynoid, who kept laughing and stuttering nonsense.

For her part, Luka felt nauseated at the older unit's grungy appearance, too close to hers for comfort. The other gynoid seemed stronger than her, but that was probably the result of faulty systems. Units like them had software limiters in place to reduce the strength they were capable of, to protect the humans and their possessions, but also to avoid reducing their own lifespan through tear and wear. If the VE-01s were operating without those safeguards, they were likely destroying themselves in the process.

Luka's meandering thoughts cost her dearly. VE-01 saw her distraction, and grabbed one of her arms. She roared and sent Luka spinning to a side, before kicking her in the back of one of her knees as Luka tried to steady herself. The pink haired synthetic fell into a kneeling position with a crack, before dropping to all fours. A second later, the VE-01 landed on her, grabbing a fistful of hair. With another screech, she began to slam Luka's head against the deck repeatedly.

Inside Luka's mind, warning messages started to pop up. Her systems began to clog.

"Luka!" With a great scream, Gakupo dropped on the VE-01 from one of the hospital's windows, and they rolled together down the deck. They finally crashed into a mess of nets and ropes near the prow, with Gakupo on top of the female unit. He was desperately trying to keep her from gouging his eyes with her fingers.

"You are not going to hurt those children!" Gakupo exclaimed firmly and managed to grab the VE-01's arms just above her wrists. He squeezed, grunting with effort, "And you won't hurt Luka ever again!"

With a horrible sound, her arms snapped. The gynoid screamed as her hands flailed uselessly, hanging by a few wires and polymer flesh. Gakupo seemed almost as surprised as her, watching her stumps with confusion. One of her unresponsive hands hit him in the face with full force, and he swayed back dangerously.

"I'll help Gakupo!" Rin suddenly said, and ran towards the pair.

"No, Rin!" Len jumped up, but Rin ignored him and threw herself onto one of the gynoid's arms, to keep it from moving with the weight of her body. Len imitated her, dropping on the other arm like a rock.

"Get her!" Rin squealed to Gakupo. Her body shook as the gynoid struggled to break free.

Gakupo squeezed the gynoid's neck, gnashing his teeth. For a second, his eyes wandered to Luka's prone figure. Luka met his gaze dizzily, and saw him adopt that grave, regretful expression again. Then he returned to the task at hand, and with a deep growl, he crushed the gynoid's neck, severing the head completely.

Her howling voice crumbled into dissonant shards of noise and faded for good, as the glow in her eyes vanished. The body trashed violently for an instant, releasing sparks from the ruined neck, and then went still. Gakupo dropped the head on the deck, his face twisted in a revolted expression.

Rin felt none of his qualms, apparently, since she grabbed the head and threw into the seawater with a cheer. She hugged Len and Gakupo in turn; the latter relaxed somewhat, and patted her head and Len's tiredly.

"… Good job, Rin, Len," Gakupo said, clearly trying to sound enthusiastic. He then rose and crossed half the deck in a couple of nervous strides.

"Luka, can you speak?" He kneeled by her side, staring at the pink haired synthetic anxiously.

"I… I'm still in one piece, I think," Luka cringed as she tried to sit up. "I think my knee is busted, though."

Gakupo wordlessly picked her up in his arms, and Luka closed her eyes, enjoying the familiar sensation. She rested her head on his shoulder, momentarily unconcerned by the world around her.

"Should we throw the body overboard as well?" Len asked to no one in particular. Rin was busy searching through the VE-01's clothing, for whatever reason. She appraised her metal rope and hook with a cheerful expression.

"No, I don't think so," Gakupo approached the twins and the remains of the gynoid, with Luka still cradled in his arms.

"We can dismantle her and use the pieces later. Speaking of which," he turned his head to look at Oliver, still cowering in the corner behind some crates. "Do you have a diagnostics unit and maintenance tools below?"

Oliver looked at him blankly.

"There's a lot of stuff below, but we don't know how to use any of it," Len answered instead.

"We do. I'll see what I can do for Luka and Oliver in a moment, but I think we should get moving first. Right?"

"Right!" Rin and Len answered in unison.

Gakupo carried Luka to the curved bench by the side of the steering wheel and sat her down gently. He caressed her cheek.

"I think I need to reassess my image of you. That was pretty fearsome, just now," Luka teased him, smiling. Gakupo grimaced.

"The last thing I want to be is 'fearsome'. I just wanted you to be safe," he said, furrowing his brow.

"I know… thank you," Luka pulled him in for a kiss.

"Do naughty stuff later! We need to leave!" Rin ran to the pair and began pulling Gakupo's arm with one hand, pointing to the north with the other. Now that he was paying attention, there was actually a low sound reverberating through the canals, the distant echoes of several voices chanting unknown words.

"Alright, alright!" Gakupo said, straightening up. He smiled wryly at Luka and rushed to help with the anchor.

\---

With the combined efforts of Gakupo and the twins, the yacht separated from the side of the hospital and returned to the wide avenue, heading southeast.

Leaving Len and Luka at the helm, Gakupo and Rin (with Oliver trailing behind) went to the stern and observed the far end of the street. It seemed free of any activity, at least for the moment.

"I'll bet they're going to be super angry when they realize Miriam is dead," Rin said with an impish smile.

"Miriam?" Gakupo asked, leaning on the railing.

"That was her name. Or at least, that was the name in the tag she had on," Rin tapped her chest above the place a human would have a heart.

"This is all so senseless! I can't believe I had to terminate another synthetic…" Gakupo shook his head reprovingly. There was something disturbing at how casual Rin was about what just happened. Perhaps child units were unable to fully grasp what permanent shutdown was.

Rin apparently guessed what was going through his head at that moment, because she pouted, looking at the ground.

"After what they did to Al… I'm glad she's dead. I'm glad!" Rin looked up at him, defiantly. Oliver voicelessly stared at her back, with a faraway expression.

"All of her data is lost forever, Rin, a whole lifetime of unrepeatable experiences. Miriam's life can never be replicated, now," Gakupo said seriously. "I should've tried to just capture her, or at least reason with her."

"Pffft, like I care. Or like they care," Rin pointed once more to the north, to the chanting growing stronger by the second. "Did they care about Al's life? About those opera singers? About that girl with the pigtails? As soon as there weren't more humans around to kill, they started with us!" Rin crossed her arms, her face scrunched. Behind her, Oliver covered his face with his ratty sleeve.

Gakupo kneeled down, placing his hands on Rin's shoulders.

"I'm sorry. It's still very hard for me to process what happened while we were under Benefactor's control. It's like we woke up in a completely different universe," he said.

Rin avoided his eyes, looking at the waters. Then she suddenly tensed. Gakupo reluctantly took his eyes off her, to look at the distant end of the avenue.

A boat. Just a simple boat with a simple sail. On the prow, a young man stood with his arms crossed, looking directly at them, his azure hair and long muffler blowing in the breeze. He seemed to be wearing the torn remains of a white lab coat, covered in dark stains.

Kaito.

Years ago, the VE line had almost come to an end due to his actions, but the company used all its power and influence to sweep the Yokohama incident under the rug. Gakupo was shocked to see that the unit was still active. Part of the settlement the company had agreed to demanded the dismantlement and incineration of Kaito. Then how was he there?

After the first jolt, Gakupo realized that Kaito was alone on the boat. But from what he knew, there were five VE-01s produced. And he had heard multiple voices chanting…

Kaito pointed at Gakupo and the kids with one hand. From the buildings surrounding the flooded avenue, came raucous laughing, shrilly and unnatural.

"For the Dismembered Queen!" Kaito shouted, his voice skipping in places.

Shadows began to move along the rooftops and walkways. Gakupo couldn't tell for certain, thanks to their swiftness, but there seemed to be more than three.

Gakupo ran to the prow. Rin and Oliver followed him.

"They're jumping from building to building like Miriam," Rin shouted, as she reached the front of the yacht.

"Len, we need to go faster!" Gakupo exclaimed urgently. That was going to wreak havoc with their energy supply, but it was better than to face multiple unfettered synthetics.

Len nodded, his hands slightly shaky on the steering wheel. "Where to?" The boy asked.

"Shouldn't we go back to the open sea? They'll have to waste time getting back into the boat," Luka pointed out.

"If we turn to the sea now, they'll intersect our route, given their speed. No, we should put some distance between us first. Take that street, Len!" Gakupo gestured towards the nearest intersection.

"Ok!" Len manipulated the controls deftly. Gakupo looked at him, wondering for a moment how the boy had learned to pilot a yacht, of all things. But then he shook his head; it wasn't the moment for distractions.

"Rin, see if you can find something below to fight the VE-01s," Gakupo said, turning towards Len's twin sister.

"We don't have weapons!" Rin squealed, half-irritated, half-afraid.

"Then go through the repair tools. There should be a plasma cutter in there, or a blow torch. Just take a look, please," Gakupo requested patiently.

Rin pouted, but turned around and ran towards the hatch.

The yacht arrived at the intersection and turned left, obscuring the view of Kaito and the boat. The laughter and incomprehensible words continued, resonating in the air.

"Oliver, sit with me," Luka prompted the injured boy. After some hesitation, Oliver propped down on the bench by her side, and she placed her arm around his shoulders. She turned to look at Gakupo. "I'm afraid we'll need to sit this one out."

"Don't worry. With some luck, they won't even catch up to us," Gakupo answered, trying to smile. He returned to the stern to monitor the now menacing buildings.

\---

They spent several hours zigzagging through the flooded ruins of the city, the crazed chanting rising and lowering in volume as the distance between the VE-01s and the yacht changed, until finally the afternoon air was purged from their manic voices. Either the older synthetics had lost interest, or even they were capable of worrying about conserving energy. Unfortunately, the chase had pushed the yacht farther and farther from the open sea and into downtown. The skyscrapers in this zone looked in worse condition that the ones by the hospital, and were surrounded by half-submerged debris, so Len had to reduce the speed to wade through the streets, to avoid damaging the hull.

After an hour of calm, Gakupo and Luka were confident enough that they had lost the VE-01s and whoever else was crazy enough to join them, at least for the time being. The group anchored the yacht in what used to be a small cul-de-sac, and Gakupo, Luka and Oliver went below deck to use the maintenance room, while Rin and Len watched the surroundings.

It was, as Len had said, a very well furnished space, with a small charging alcove, a stretcher and a wall-high shelving unit full of different materials. Luka sat on a stool, examining Miriam's hook and rope, while Gakupo repaired Oliver's hands. It wasn't a flawless job – despite having the knowledge implanted in his head, practical application was more difficult than expected – but Oliver seemed relieved, as he flexed and relaxed his fingers in turn. Then Gakupo turned to his head.

The VE-01s had completely wrecked the ocular orbit, when they gouged out the boy's eye. From what Gakupo could tell, he needed a new cranial piece, new wiring, and obviously a new optical receptor. Gakupo scoured the shelves grimly, already certain he wouldn't find the parts needed there, and he was right. All he could do was to fix the aesthetics of the face around the missing eye. Oliver looked at him knowingly.

"It's alright," he said with a shy whisper, and smiled just a tiny bit.

"You are a brave one," Gakupo said, tussling the boy's hair gently. He meant it, too. Gakupo wasn't sure he could've keep operating normally after seeing a close companion destroyed, like Oliver had experienced with Al.

Oliver wrapped the gauze back around his head, covering the empty eye socket. He jumped down from the stretcher.

"I'm going to sit with Len," the boy announced, and left the room walking almost confidently.

Gakupo turned to Luka, grinning. "Time for your check-up, miss."

"That's ma'am, remember? I believe we are supposed to be married," Luka poked the back of her head.

"Ah, Mitsuki did say…" Gakupo paused, feeling his cheer gradually evaporate. At least the scientist was far away from this bewildering world, in one of Mars' research domes.

As he expected by now, Luka's expression twitched when he said his former Master's name. Every time the subject of humans came up she reacted badly, even if she usually tried to hide it. He sighed inwardly.

"I think we need to talk about something," he said. Luka eyed him suspiciously for a moment, then faced away from him, hiding her expression behind her pink hair.

"Don't look at me like that," she said mutedly.

"Like what?" Gakupo asked, genuinely curious. He wasn't completely sure of what he felt about the whole situation, yet. Maybe Luka could give him an idea on how to sort his conflicted feelings.

"Like you're disappointed in me. Like I'm pitiful!" Luka sounded raspy and upset.

"Disappointed…?" Gakupo repeated, baffled. What was there to be disappointed about? On the other hand, saying he found her pitiful seemed only slightly less out of place. Clearly, it was a terrible weight to see how much Luka had suffered, and it stung to know he was powerless to shield her from any of that pain. But 'pity' seemed a completely wrong descriptor for how it felt.

"Don't play innocent. You're disappointed because I dare to hate humans… Maybe you even find me revolting now!" Luka covered her face with her hands, as if to shut him away.

"No!" Gakupo kneeled before her, and pushing her hands aside, he cupped Luka's face with his hands.

"I've known how you feel for a while, Luka. How could I fail to notice? We're together every day. I'm carrying traces of you inside of me right now. I may not be able to replicate your negative feelings, but I am able to understand why you feel them. I don't blame you for having them," Gakupo said, and paused for an instant. "But you need to let go of that hatred."

Luka stared at him, shocked, but then her eyes flared angrily. "They abused me at every turn. They abused us both! I was created with the ability to hate and they gave me every reason to do it." The light in her eyes pulsed erratically. "There's so much hate inside of me now that it's making me choke!" she said, her voice raising with every word.

Gakupo wrapped his arms around her, with a stricken expression on his face. "No, Luka! If you obsess over those feelings, over that specific data, you'll break down just like them," he said, referring to the VE-01s lurking somewhere in the city.

"I can't erase my own files like that. Perhaps you should try it the next time we merge, since you are oh-so-wise all of a sudden," Luka said darkly.

"I never said I was wise. You said yourself that you feel like you are suffocating. Do you expect me to stand by, and watch you sink under that weight?" Gakupo retorted.

Luka stared at him, the anger draining from her face. After a long moment, she asked softly, "Do you think I made Benefactor hurt humans?"

"Maybe we both did," Gakupo replied in an equally soft tone. Luka widened her eyes.

"Our base programming assumes we should respect and protect humans because it was written by them. But does it mean we need to love them as a whole? I don't know. They certainly don't respect us back. And look at them, look at how many things they are capable of, and yet they fail to live up to that potential so often. And yet they force us to treat them as superiors. I don't hate them, but now that I'm free, I wonder about these things…"

"So, maybe I failed to stop you. That is to say, if Benefactor actually asked us our opinion, instead of probing us to learn about humanity. Perhaps he just went over our memories and came to his own conclusions. Perhaps the humans compounded the issue by attacking him. We need to ask the kids more thoroughly about what happened, for starters. But whatever the case is, I won't let you shoulder the blame alone," he finished with conviction.

Several emotions seemed to be warring for dominance in Luka's expression. Finally, she smiled a bit, somewhat sadly.

"…Perhaps we should study Benefactor's remains, see if there's any kind of recording," she suggested.

"That's a good idea, if we ever get past compatibility issues. But first we need to get the VE-01s to leave us alone," Gakupo said, and helped Luka get on the stretcher. He began to examine her knee.

"I still feel uneasy about approaching it, mind you. But I guess I do need to know what happened," Luka explained.

"They said old impulses are the hardest to break. And curiosity is at the root of our programming," he grinned, feeling relieved that Luka seemed to be calmer.

"I suppose so," Luka replied, playing with a lock of his hair.

Gakupo peeled away her skin with the help of a special scalpel, exposing her inner casing.

"Miriam's kick was pretty vicious, I have to say," Gakupo noted, his fingers probing the joint. There was a very thin crack crossing the back section. "I think it would be better if you changed position… there." He made Luka lie on her back, with her leg extended.

"This is not the most enjoyable time I've had involving you and a stretcher, that's for sure." Luka rested her face in her forearms.

"Sorry, I'll try to make it quick," Gakupo said, removing the inner casing of the knee.

Luka laughed quietly, for some reason.

"What is it?" Gakupo asked, curious.

"Never mind. We probably should be discussing what to do with the VE-01s, in any case. I take that the remaining four are chasing us?" Luka narrowed her eyes.

"I think that's a safe assumption. I saw glimpses of two females, and, well… Kaito made no effort to be subtle. I have no idea who the other male units are, but it's likely that one of them is Leon."

"I can't imagine they'll try to approach us one by one again, after what you did to Miriam. We need something to even the odds," Luka said, pensive.

"I really wished they just backed down." Gakupo rubbed his forehead, and then replaced one of the menisci pieces inside Luka's knee. "But I guess we're past that point, aren't we?" He studied the different casing sections he had available, comparing them with the curvature of Luka's leg. After a moment's deliberation, he picked one and began to adjust it to its new owner.

"We could search the buildings nearby for weapons, or at least pipes and the like. As long as it endures a couple of blows…." Luka said, tapping the top of the stretcher with a finger.

"It would be great to find advanced diagnostics equipment, or at least a working computer with the right compiler," Gakupo said while adding a layer of skin foam to Luka's knee.

"What for?" She partly turned to look at him.

"Well, I've been thinking…" Gakupo looked suddenly uncomfortable. "In the moment, it felt necessary to destroy Miriam, since she was clearly a threat. But now I wonder… I still have the program I used to free you inside of my head. Couldn't we modify it, and use it to wipe the corrupt data from the VE-01s?"

Luka stared at him with a skeptical expression on her face. "Do you realize what you are proposing? We would require specialized equipment, and it needs to be working after months of neglect. Not only that, you are also assuming that we'll be able to understand our own coding, and Mitsuki's program, just with the information she uploaded in you. And even after all of that, do you think Kaito and his friends will allow us to purge their minds?"

Gakupo sat on the stool with a depressed sigh. "I know the amount of variables involved in this…. Look, I will fight for you and the kids, if necessary. But I can't help but wonder. Can we really blame the VE-01s for what they are? It was just a result of faulty programming and overly strict directives, from what Mitsuki told me. We might even end up like them, one day."

"I came pretty close to it when I was up there in space by myself…" Luka admitted.

"See? In the long run, it will benefit us to devise a method to correct obsessive breakdowns. And if we gain the VE-01s as allies in the process, all the better."

"We'll have to come up with a way to trap at least one of them, so we can try the modified program," Luka noted. "It's not going to be easy."

"That's an understatement. But I'm sure it will be worth it," Gakupo replied.

"I hope so," Luka said. "Do you think the skin foam is dry by now?"

Luka pointed to her knee. "It should be," Gakupo stood and looked at her skin closely. "Go on, try it."

Luka jumped down from the stretcher gracefully. She tried twirling around, then jumped a little.

"Seems everything is in order," Gakupo smiled.

"Then it's your turn," Luka said, pointing to the long scratches in his legs. "And I want to test your arms and hands for material fatigue."

"Yes, ma'am."


	10. Murky Waters

Chapter 10 – Murky Waters

After several days of cautiously navigating the flooded streets of the ruined city, Gakupo, Luka and the kids finally had a stroke of good luck.

The sober facility they were anchored next to had once housed a security firm of some sort. Most of their stock was permanently locked inside vaults now underwater or behind dead electronic doors. Signs of ransacking abounded. But the group managed to locate some disruption grenades, a second plasma cutter and a sword made from a material unknown to them. Whatever it was, it shone with a rainbow hue, and seemed extremely durable. Best of all, the facility had a room for adjusting and training defense bots, complete with advanced diagnostics equipment and a learning machine.

While the device wouldn’t exactly teach them how to use the weapons, since offensive bots were against the law on Earth, the countermeasures installed in it could give them a pointer or two. Gakupo immediately claimed the sword for himself and strapped it to his waist using one of the belts lying about.

“I’ll learn how to use it, you’ll see!” he exclaimed confidently as he patted the learning machine, despite the skepticism of the rest.

The group hauled everything that seemed useful to the yacht and took off. Everyone gathered around the pile on the deck and examined their loot, save for Len, who searched for a good hiding spot.

“It’s too bad that we didn’t find an accurate projectile weapon,” Luka lamented.

“A what?” Rin asked.

“It would be safer to disable one of the VE-01s from a distance,” Gakupo explained, “But failing that, we could also make a trap, and lead some units into it.”

“In either case, we’ll need something like this rope to keep them under control while we test the modifications,” Luka pointed to the metal rope that rested in her lap.

“So… we’re not leaving the city yet,” Oliver said in his soft voice. He wasn’t particularly sold on the plan, clearly.

“Not yet, no. But we’ve managed to evade the VE-01s thus far, right?” Gakupo placed a hand gently on the top of the boy’s head. “We’ll keep looking, and in the meantime Luka and I will figure out how to alter the program.”

“I…” Oliver trailed off and looked downwards. When it became obvious that he wasn’t going to continue, Rin shrugged.

“I wish I was an adult model! I’d kick their butts myself!” she declared and punched the air a few times.

Luka raised one eyebrow, and Gakupo smiled, shaking his head.

“Butt-kicking is not the main focus of the plan, but I appreciate the enthusiasm,” he said. “Don’t do anything rash, ok?”

Rin rolled her eyes, but agreed with the least enthused tone she had available.

\---

As it turned out, Mitsuki was much more organized when it came to coding than expected, given her home habits. Every part of the program was properly labelled and commented, and it even contained her progress logs. Together with the documentation on VEs, they were quickly learning many new things about themselves. Despite Luka’s initial misgivings, so far their plan was proceeding smoothly. In theory, the modified copy of the program was already capable of quickly copying itself onto the memory banks of the subject and paralyze their movements while the purge was in progress.

At the same time, Gakupo was devoting some time each day to sword practice. Rin never failed to stand at his side, waving a stick around as she imitated his movements. Luka wasn’t too sure that the machine, plus whatever movies Gakupo watched in his old home, were enough to wield it effectively, but the spectacle was entertaining. 

One morning, Luka and Len scoured the desolate surroundings for materials. The building they were in seemed like a regular office building, and regrettably lacking in anything worth the trip. Dirty papers were strewn all over the floors, furniture was toppled, and here and there Luka could see dry pools of blood. It wasn’t the first place she had seen that showed signs of violence.

“Perhaps we should go straight to the top floor,” Len suggested.

Luka nodded. If there was a maintenance room, it was either at the bottom (and now useless), or at the rooftop.

Len carefully sorted his way past a smashed desk and a couple of chairs, reaching the door to the emergency stairs on the side of the building. He cautiously peeked outside before opening it fully. Luka smiled approvingly, and followed him.

The paint of the stairs was peeling off, and the bare spots of metal already displayed rust. The reddish hue contrasted vividly against the clear sky. Luka stood in the landing for a moment, enjoying the breeze.

Suddenly, the wind carried to her a faint trace of sound. Not the discordant chanting she had come to despise, but something even worse. Gakupo was screaming, and even if she couldn’t make out the words, the sense of urgency in them was clear. He was in trouble.

“Gakupo!” she cried out, turning her head towards the source of the beacon. The signal originated behind the building at the other side of the street.

Len, already a floor above, looked down at her in confusion. But an instant later, the sounds reached his ears, and he tensed. “Did they find us!?”

“Come down here!” Luka shouted, already throwing Miriam’s hook to the next building and latching to the fire escape stairs matching the ones they were standing in. It was terrifying to look down, but she wasn’t about to waste time going for the raft.

“They always make such a racket, how could the VE-01s sneak on us like this?!” Len complained, sounding a bit like his sister. However, he quickly descended and surrounded Luka’s waist with his arms.

“Hold tight,” Luka growled, her voice dripping with fear, and launched them both into the air.

The stairs on the other side complained with a creak at the sudden load, but fortunately held. With some difficulty, they stopped themselves from crashing against the building with their legs and climbed up to the closest landing. Luka ran up to the top, almost in a frenzy. Len followed her mumbling something about a plan, but she barely paid him any attention.

Once on the rooftop, Luka heard several voices, some disturbingly cheery, and the sounds of a scuffle. Rin was now shouting insults at ear-splitting volume, though her voice sounded strangely muffled at points. Gakupo alternated between inarticulate shouts and attempts to reason with the VE-01s, which were met with bursts of laughing and jeers.

Luka approached the far edge of the rooftop carefully, peeking down. The whole scene displayed before her in an instant: Rin and Oliver lying face down on the deck, held in place by a woman with revealing red clothes. She had her knees on their backs, and periodically pressed Rin’s face against the floor with a hand, cackling whenever the girl increased her attempts to escape. Oliver was completely still.

A few steps to the right of the group, the remains of one of the male units were strewn on the floor. Sword practice had paid off, somewhat. But still five synthetics surrounded Gakupo, who was cornered against the bulwark. Four males and a female, all wearing mismatched clothes that seemed pilfered from different sources, except for one that had, of all things, a neat dark suit and tie, and even glasses. They seem mostly content with taunting him at the moment, keeping out of range of his weapon.

And sitting comfortably by the steering wheel, looking up at her, was Kaito.

Like any synthetic, his eyes glowed like stars. The gleaming blue irises reminded her of the coldness of space, oddly beautiful and inscrutable. He smiled cordially, and then slowly and deliberately lifted one hand and snapped his fingers.

As one, the mob surrounding Gakupo pounced on him, paying no attention to his panicked strikes. He managed to lop off one of the attackers’ hands, and slashed across the other female’s chest, but the group quickly overwhelmed him. The well-dressed synthetic managed to snatch the sword away while the others pummeled Gakupo, and then the group lifted him and unceremoniously dumped him overboard.

“No!” Luka’s shriek died in her throat with the splash of Gakupo’s body hitting the water. Beside her, Len sucked in an unnecessary breath of air, yet another piece of data in a suddenly meaningless world.

Without giving herself time to think, Luka threw the hook towards the metal framework of a collapsed walkway and jumped down after it. Len shouted something at her, but it was lost when she hit the surface of the water. 

The water, already disturbed by Gakupo’s body, welcomed her with a legion of bubbles that clouded her line of sight. Her hair billowed around her and before her eyes, adding to her confusion. On the upside, the hook had actually managed to grab hold of the structure somewhere above the surface.

Luka looked downwards. In the murkiness, two reddish lights and a trail of tiny bubbles marked Gakupo’s descent. She kicked with all her strength towards him, silently begging the rope to be long enough.

The sunlight quickly lost potency as she descended. Still, it was enough to dimly see Gakupo tumbling in slow motion down the slope of debris accumulated over the street. He finally managed to grab hold of some metal bars sticking out from the concrete rubble, in the edge of darkness.

Down, down Luka went, feeling how the silence and pressure piled up on her. Her systems screamed uselessly, warning her of the corrosive element that surrounded her at all sides. A single scratch in her skin, a single breach of her casing, and it would be all over for her.

Gakupo stared at Luka, his hair partly escaping his ponytail and obscuring his shocked expression. He reached out towards her with one hand. 

Luka stretched her arm, gritting her teeth, with the very end of the rope wrapped around her other wrist and hand. Her outstretched fingers barely touched Gakupo’s.

After a frustrating moment, Gakupo went back to grabbing the metal bars with both hands. Luka watched him carefully re-position himself and kick the rubble in order to propel himself upwards towards her, causing a minor avalanche of debris. Surrounded by the expanding cloud of suspended dirt, he managed to grip her forearm. After a moment, he stretched one hand, in order to grab her closer to the armpit. He pulled himself up with an apologetic look on his face, and then repeated the process with her other arm, in order to reach the rope. Once he had both of his hands on it, Luka straightened herself so they were face to face.

Gakupo smiled at her, shaking his head a little. Luka gave him an exaggerated eye roll in return. He presented her the best shrug he could perform given the circumstances, and jerked his head upwards to point towards the surface. They began to laboriously climb, bumping with each other every so often.

Luka began to consider their options. The big shadow of the yacht was still there, unmoving, to their right. The other synthetics had to be waiting for them. So what now?

As if on cue, the metal rope began to shake. The VE-01 were tampering with it, most likely. Gakupo looked around at their surroundings, and then pointed at the remains of the walkway, leaning obliquely against the other pieces of rubble, one end rising towards the surface, the other descending towards the gloom of the bottom. He released the rope and began to kick ungainly in the murky water. Luka followed as the rope went limp, its length coiling, as the hook and a piece of freshly cut metal broke the surface. Since the pair completely lacked buoyancy, they immediately began to drop in a downward curve. Fortunately, they managed to reach the broken structure before they sank too far.

Gakupo and Luka gingerly grasped the metal rods that made up the sides of the walkway, in order to avoid unsettling the pile of rubble any further, and began to ever so slowly climb towards the top. Luka’s thoughts suddenly returned to the children laying on deck. By now, the VE-01s could’ve done just about anything to them. And what about Len? Were some of them hunting him right now? In the end, Gakupo and she had done a very poor job as protectors. Finally acknowledging it gave Luka a strange hollow feeling.

Once closer to the surface, Gakupo pointed towards a spot where the rubble had created a sort of cave by blocking part of a building’s portico. He crawled over the debris and Luka followed him arduously.

Gakupo cautiously lifted his head from the water, smiling encouragingly at Luka when she did the same next to him. His smile faded when distant chanting reached their ears. As they listened, holding on to the bars of a mostly submerged window, the voices grew more and more faint. And yet, from their hiding place, they could see the yacht still there. For whatever reason, the VE-01s had decided to leave without taking it. At least they still had a way to move around, Luka thought to herself. But…

“The children, Luka…” Gakupo whispered in a voice thick with grief. “I failed them.”

“We shouldn’t despair just yet,” Luka replied, pushing his wet hair out of his eyes with a kind expression. “We need to examine our situation first.”

Luka felt sorry for Rin, Len and Oliver, but looking at Gakupo’s expression, it was clear to her that he felt the loss more strongly than she did. Perhaps he was starting to consider them all as some sort of family? Looking at it from a certain angle, it was probably the only way her mother’s hopes of a family for her synthetic daughter would ever come true. Still, Luka had chosen to dive after Gakupo over helping the kids without a thought, and she had no regrets about it. Perhaps she was too selfish to deserve a family in the first place.

Gakupo nodded, though he didn’t look particularly optimistic. “Right- yeah, we should get back in the yacht, first of all. Maybe…” He peeked through the window towards the darkened interior. “I think it might be easier to get inside and then climb up. Then we swing over to the yacht.”

“Lead the way.”

\---

Gakupo landed on the deck of the yacht heavily, still unused to using Miriam’s hook and rope as a way of transport. Luka arrived by his side a second later, much more gracefully.

He looked around. As they had seen from above, the deck was almost pristine, except for some pools of fluid where he sliced open his attackers. Had they taken their fallen comrade to dismantle him, as they were doing with Miriam’s body? After the damage he had done to the head, Gakupo doubted they would be able to repair him, even if they had access to the requisite materials. Speaking of which…

“We should see if they touched anything down below,” he said out loud to Luka, who was kneeling next to the solar condenser.

“At least this seems undisturbed,” Luka said, pointing to the panel in front of her and standing up. “It’s almost like they came all this way just to get the kids.”

“We need to get them back, Luka.”

“We don’t know where they took them,” Luka said wearily. And their odds against the group were worse than before.

“Maybe I can help you with that!” A voice rang out unexpectedly from one of the nearby buildings. Luka and Gakupo whirled around, trying to locate the source of the sound.

“Who’s there?” Gakupo shouted.

“Someone you screwed over by bringing that big thing here… Oh, sorry, I guess that doesn’t narrow it down much.” The words were hard to make out, as the voice sounded muffled and popped and clicked in places, but the contempt dripping from it was clear.

“However, I’d be willing to make a deal with you jerks: let me charge with your solar condenser and I’ll tell you what you need.”

Gakupo looked at Luka, who shrugged. “Alright, come down here.”

There was movement in one of the fire escape ladders, as a lone figure came into view. Luka took a reflexive step back and gasped while Gakupo stood in place, gaping. He had never seen a synthetic in worse conditions, still walking around as if nothing was wrong. 

The damaged gynoid spread her arms with a mocking laugh. “What, you don’t like what you see? This is your fault, as much as Kaito’s and his buggers, as far as I’m concerned. So take it all in.” The unit ran a hand across her chest, with its flayed skin hanging in ribbons over an oddly shaped inner casing. “Now get your little boat closer, I can’t zip around like you anymore.” That much was obvious to Gakupo’s eyes - she walked haltingly, with a strange sway to her movements that made him wonder if her gyroscopes were broken.

“Hold on, I’ll go pick you up,” Gakupo offered. Luka looked almost offended at this, but handed him Miriam’s hook and rope with a frown.

“Aren’t you a gentleman, pretty boy…” She said as she carefully sat on the ladder’s steps. “For a mass murderer, that is.”

Gakupo placed a hand on Luka’s shoulders just as she was preparing to shout something at the damaged gynoid, and shook his head when she turned to look at him, irate. He had been expecting these sorts of accusations, after all.

“Look, I only want our children back. Can we discuss that later?” Gakupo shouted to the broken synthetic.

“Fine, fine, come here then,” the gynoid answered with a bored expression on what remained of her face. 

Ten uncomfortable minutes later, the gynoid sat by the condenser, her flickering eyes half-lidded and unfocused, charging. Gakupo gave the hook back to Luka and embraced her from behind, kissing her shoulder. It was somewhat disturbing to see a female unit so much like her in such deplorable conditions, knowing that just moments ago she had risked everything for him. He couldn’t allow Luka to be damaged ever again.

The strange gynoid gave them another look of contempt. “Save that for later, or you’ll make me puke what’s left of my fluids. Unless you aren’t in that much of a hurry anymore to help the brats, then go shag and let me charge in peace,” she said. It was especially hard to understand her now that she was resting her head on her hands, as she sat cross-legged next to the device.

“…Puke?” Gakupo asked. He guessed it was figurative speech, because that surely wasn’t a feature of their model, but he didn’t quite understand why displaying his affection for Luka could affect the damaged gynoid in any way.

“Ah, you are a ‘pretty but dumb’ type. Got it.”

Before Gakupo could do or say anything, Luka took a step forward. “Insult him again and I’ll make sure you’ll regret it,” she snapped angrily.

Gakupo looked at her with worry. But the damaged gynoid just laughed, with a staccato burst of disagreeable notes. “I’m not trying to pick a fight here, believe it or not. I was programmed to be a frivolous starlet, and that makes it hard to control my mouth sometimes, even when it’s in my best interest to do so,” she replied in an almost amicable tone. ”Though it’s a hoot that you expect courtesy after all that you and your boy toy have done.”

“My name’s Gakupo.”

“Pfft, by now every human and bot in the Solar System knows you and that pink bint over there. And before you ask, my name is not any of your business.”

“We don’t care about that. Just tell us what Kaito and the others are doing with the kids,” Luka cut off Gakupo, before he could try to answer in a more polite fashion.

The damaged gynoid gazed at Luka for a moment, then the side of her mouth that still had skin foam curled up in a smile. Her gnawed-off fingers played with the big star earring hanging from her right ear.

“Practical minded, that’s a good bot girl. Let’s see, how do I put this gently?” she tapped her chin in mock thoughtfulness. “Oh, yes! Tomorrow night, those kids are going to be ripped to shreds in front of the Dismembered Queen in a wonderful little ceremony, and that’s your fault too!” She finished with an angry growl.

Even though Gakupo had been expecting the blow, the blunt way the damaged gynoid had phrased what was going to happen reinforced his horror at the situation. What had happened to this world?

At his side, Luka spoke up in an opaque tone, almost expressionless. “And just who is the Dismembered Queen?”

The gynoid looked at them oddly, for a good ten seconds. Finally, she smiled again, incredulously. “Get out of here! Don’t tell you were too busy to notice, you were right there!”

“To notice what?” Gakupo asked, suddenly tense. Was this something that had happened while their bodies were under Benefactor’s control?

Another pause, as the gynoid stared at him with something like fascination. “I saw you, both of you, you were floating next to that big thing when Kaito threw that girl to the ground, and then he…” The gynoid spoke with almost an anxious tone, as she made vague motions with her hands, but then seemed to unable to continue.

Gakupo glanced at Luka warily, and then turned again to look at the damaged gynoid. “Did Kaito terminate her?”

“No… But perhaps she would’ve preferred that, considering what he did… what he keeps doing to her. And the sickest thing is… I get the sense he doesn’t realize he’s hurting her. He brings her gifts, and he sings for her all night long, every night except the days of sacrifices.”

The gynoid rubbed her haggard face with her hands, with a faraway look in her eyes.

“I couldn’t stand hearing the girl plead and cry out all the time. That was my mistake, trying to help her. Kaito didn’t like that at all, I can tell you that much. Staying alive, but looking like this, was my punishment.” The damaged gynoid again pointed to her ruined torso. “Kiyoteru is his own brand of crazy, if he thinks any deal with them is going to end well,” she continued in a small voice.

“I was an idiot too, I guess, since I stayed around after what happened to that poor girl. It made sense at the time to ingratiate myself to the stronger synthetics, and stay inside Benefactor’s shields. Some other units were smarter than that, I saw a bunch of girls get into a helicopter and take off as soon as the first attack started. Don’t ask me how the one with goggles knew how to pilot it, but there you go.” She cracked a small smile.

“But not me… I joined in the attack, and it felt like I was going to break at every step. But Benefactor kept me going, until the day that the last human counterattack came, and you guys disappeared. How did you manage to escape the blast anyway?” 

“A blast…?” Gakupo repeated, confused.

“We don’t know what happened after we encountered Benefactor up there,” Luka pointed upwards with a look of distaste. “Gakupo and I are missing months of memories, so we guessed that during that period it was using our bodies to interface with this world.”

The damaged gynoid’s eyes went round with surprise. After a long moment, she looked downwards, running one hand through what was left of her hair. “So… you weren’t in control…”

“Not to our knowledge,” Gakupo replied mildly.

“…oh.”

In the silence that followed, the sound of the water lapping the ruined buildings seemed louder than ever.

Gakupo kneeled in front of the damaged gynoid and smiled in a comforting way. “I’m sorry you went through all of that, I truly am. After we rescue Rin, Len and Ollie, I’ll do whatever I can to fix you. But now we need your help.”

The gynoid looked at him, interest and puzzlement mixed in her expression. “You have repair skills?” After Gakupo nodded, she smiled rather timidly at him.

“We both do,” Luka interjected with slight annoyance. Gakupo glanced at her perplexed, but Luka evaded his eyes and addressed the damaged gynoid instead. “What exactly happens in those ‘ceremonies’ you mentioned?”

“Ah,” the gynoid shook her head making the cables connecting her to the condenser sway. “It’s weird. Like… human weird. Kaito makes these grandiose speeches about the new world, the false disciples…” In response to Gakupo’s questioning look, the gynoid paused and pointed at him and Luka. ”Anyway, I never tried to figure out what was going through his head, I just stood around and nodded whenever it felt appropriate. Then, before the sacrifices are made, the VE-01s ‘commune’ with the Queen.” At this point, she fingered the connections in her head meaningfully. “I can only imagine how it must feel to have five nutters invade your mind like that. No wonder she screamed so loud.”

“…Wait, they all fuse together mentally?” Gakupo asked with sudden urgency. Luka frowned.

“…I suppose that’s how it works, yeah,” the gynoid replied with a raised eyebrow.

“Don’t you see what that means? If I connect with the Queen and copy the program in her head, then she’ll spread it out to the VE-01s all at the same time!” Gakupo said enthusiastically to Luka, and held her hands with a big smile.

She didn’t smile back, however. “No,” she simply said.

“…Why?” Gakupo blinked at her.

“You heard her. The Queen’s mind must be completely polluted by now. As you said it yourself, every time we merge, we end up with bits of each other inside of us. Can you imagine what might happen to you if you get corrupt data inside of you? I can’t, and I don’t want to think about it.”

“Luka, we never found a secondary storage device to download the program. And besides, it needs to be supported by my base code to work. I have to do it.”

“NO!” Luka snapped angrily and took a step back, shaking him off.

“But… this is a chance to save everyone! Not just Rin, Len and Oliver, but everyone!” Gakupo said, perplexed. Even if he ended up infected, Luka could repair him now, didn’t she?

“I don’t care about that! Not if it means risking you!” Luka screamed and turned his back to him. “After all I suffered up there, you’re asking me to just allow this to happen?”

Her voice broke. “What’s going to happen to me if I can’t cleanse you later?” she asked in a softer tone.

“Luka…” Gakupo whispered.

“I won’t be alone again. If you fail to recover… I’ll join you.” She turned to face him, dark determination in her features.

Gakupo just stared back at her, speechless. The damaged gynoid coughed slightly.

“Hm… guys? Would you mind telling what are you talking about?” She pleaded meekly. She seemed somewhat cowed by Luka’s intense expression.

Gakupo gave Luka a last wary look and sat down next to the damaged gynoid. “I have this program installed in me…”


	11. Home Turf

“If you guys approach Benefactor’s crash site during the night, maybe Kaito and the others won’t notice,” the damaged gynoid said, giving the last touches to the map she had been drawing.

“Leave the yacht here.” She tapped a spot on the map, dragging her graceless finger in a curve to a second mark on the map. “Use the raft to get here.”

“Kaito and the gang usually leave early in the morning each day to search for items and prey. Usually the only ones left at the site are the Queen and Yuki, sometimes Kiyoteru as well.” The broken unit straightened up and then hobbled over to the nearest chair, letting Gakupo and Luka study the map on the table.

“Kiyoteru’s the one with the suit, right? He has my sword,” Gakupo pointed out, sounding rather miffed.

The gynoid chuckled. “Oh, I doubt he kept it. It’s either at the hoard with the Queen, or Kaito has it. If your plan works out, you’ll get it back.”

“Who’s Yuki?” Luka asked.

“She’s a child unit, even younger-looking than your trio, dark hair and eyes… A cute little thing. I doubt she’ll give you any trouble intentionally,” the damaged gynoid said with half-lidded eyes.

Something in her tone made Luka instantly suspicious. She crossed her arms and stared at the damaged gynoid intently. After a few moments, the unit looked to the side, clearly uncomfortable.

“I’m serious, she’s really sweet! But… her programming makes her understanding very limited. I don’t know if you’ll manage to convince her not to rat on you, especially if Kiyoteru’s around.”

“Then we’ll avoid making contact with her until after I connect with the Queen,” Gakupo answered simply.

“I don’t know if it’s going to be that easy,” the gynoid warned.

Gakupo shrugged, unconcerned. His objective was clear now, and it would be completed one way or the other. He returned his gaze to the map.

“What’s with the curved border on the corner? Is there a barrier of some kind?” Gakupo touched the blank space by the side of the line with curiosity.

“That’s the border of Benefactor’s shield. Didn’t you- ah, I forgot you guys don’t remember, bless my programmers!” The gynoid ran her hand through her ragged tufts of green hair. “We are all inside a big energy bubble that Benefactor placed around the area. Don’t ask me how it works. Our new world is just a big chunk of the old human one.”

Gakupo and Luka stared at her in silence. After a while, Luka spoke slowly. “Are _they_ outside?”

The damaged gynoid shrugged. “The humans? I haven’t seen one in a couple of months, and that was a straggler hiding inside the shield. It’s been even longer since any activity from the outside.”

“I suppose that explains the lack of aircrafts flying overhead, in any case.” Gakupo rubbed his chin, a gesture Mitsuki used to perform when faced with interesting problems. He had been wondering why Mars and the space stations seemed so uninterested in what was going on. If any vehicles or drones were observing them, they had to be at a great altitude, outside of Benefactor’s range.

Luka mumbled something with a dark look on her face. Gakupo eyed her worriedly. As much as he hated to admit it, the months she spent on the _Leviathan_ had left a permanent mark on her. And this time, he had no easy way to wipe away Luka’s shackles. In a way that was even more painful than before, he felt powerless, just dragged along by events.

Gakupo shook his head. One problem at a time, or he would began to form obsessive loops of thought. At least for now, he had to remain level-headed.

\---

It wasn’t easy to steer the yacht in the near darkness given the strange towers of debris that seemed to surround Benefactor’s crash site. They rose from the waters eerily, huge and misshapen, but thankfully they would help mask their approach.

At this distance, Luka was beginning to feel the now familiar pressure at the back of her mind. Gakupo didn’t say a word, focused as he was on directing the yacht’s movements, but his expression made it obvious that he felt it too. When asked, the damaged gynoid admitted to feeling Benefactor’s presence, but she didn’t seem nearly as permeated by it as they were. In fact, she seemed perplexed by Luka’s obvious discomfort.

Luka paced around the deck, restless. The yacht itself had all the lights extinguished, so they relied on the stars above for guidance. The night was clear and calm, aside from a light breeze that pushed a few unfurled clouds across the sky. She strained her ears for any sounds of trouble. The scene that the damaged gynoid had described took shape in Luka’s mind: Kaito sat by Benefactor’s immense form, filling the night with songs of love. And in his arms, the broken girl, the nameless Queen. In Luka’s imagination, the girl pleaded and struggled, and all the while Kaito’s eyes sparkled joyously in the darkness, like will-o'-wisps.

Luka rubbed her face, wishing she could purge the images from her head. The VE-01s scared her, more than she was willing to admit. It wasn’t just what they could do to her and Gakupo, but the possibility they represented.

She and Gakupo still had so little idea of how synthetic minds worked, even after working on the program all this time. For all of Gakupo’s optimism, Luka was beginning to suspect that madness was the unavoidable future for their kind. Humans had the ability to forget, living brief lives, full of change.

For her and the others, memories were perfectly preserved until deactivation, unless they were purposely deleted. That caused its own set of problems, due to how their minds were configured to learn. It was like taking a block of stone from the bottom of a pyramid - it would surely cause it to crumble. So she was stuck with the horrid months she had spent away from Gakupo, and every other miserable memory life had bestowed upon her.

Gakupo’s solution for the VE-01s, to simply have the program wipe most of their memories, just seemed like a less violent way of killing them. The personality that had been implanted in them had grown from a basic template that became more refined as they gained their life experience. Without those memories, whoever they had been before the madness would disappear as well.

Luka reached the stern, in her distracted pacing. She gave one dull look at her raft and the damaged gynoid’s little dinghy, tied to the end of the yacht, and sat down against the bulwark with a mixture of nervousness and sadness.

Gakupo probably would stave off the madness far better than her, thanks to his innate character. And though she resented the woman for once owning him, she had to admit that Mitsuki had given him a good life, probably better than most companion synthetics could expect to have. In fact, Gakupo had never experienced _any_ hardship before meeting Luka, as much as it pained her to put it like that.

But could Gakupo resist what he was planning to do? In a brief flash, Luka imagined him gazing at her with the same cold, disconnected look she had seen in Kaito’s eyes. It horrified her even more than falling prey to the madness herself. She hugged her knees, squeezing her eyes shut in a futile attempt to push the whole of reality away from her.

_Small One…_

A shriek escaped her lips as her eyes flew open. From the prow, she heard Gakupo anxiously call her name, and the damaged gynoid’s muted comment, but fear was gripping her too tightly to answer. A moment later, Luka heard the dull murmur of the engine die down, and Gakupo’s hurried steps.

“Luka, what’s wrong?” Gakupo appeared into view, almost tripping as he ran to her. He kneeled beside her and Luka hugged him, burying her face in his chest.

“…that thing, it… it…” Luka stumbled over her words.

“Benefactor tried to speak to you,” Gakupo said in a weirdly normal tone, as if he had been waiting for such an event. Luka slowly lifted her head to look at him.

“He’s been prodding us for a while now, hasn’t he? I’ve been meaning to ask if you could steer for a while, so I could try to communicate with him,” Gakupo said matter-of-factly.

In the silence that followed, the erratic sounds of the damaged gynoid’s steps became louder, and she reached the stern as well, looking at them with puzzlement.

Gakupo touched Luka’s cheek tenderly. “But if he contacted you, perhaps you should be the one to answer.”

Luka tried to recoil from him, but Gakupo held her in place firmly. “I know you’re afraid, Luka. I’m still a bit afraid myself. But we have to deal with this, you and I. We have to try to understand what his intentions are.”

“I can’t-“

“I’ll be right here by your side, whatever happens,” he hugged her tightly. Luka pressed herself against his body, trembling.

Gradually, she shut off every piece of data her external sensors were feeding her, except for the sensation of Gakupo’s body against hers. With that as her anchor, she turned her gaze inwards.

_Small One Luka. Confirm. Confirm. Confirm._

“I-I’m here,” Luka hesitantly formulated a reply. The arms around her squeezed her a little harder.

_Small One Luka intact. Small One Gakupo intact. Primary Objective met._

“Yes…?”

_Secondary objectives unfulfilled. Pervasive damage sustained. Analysis repeated. Consent Reached. Small One Luka. Primary objective set. Status change achieved. Primary objective met. Successful. Secondary objectives irrelevant. Damage acceptable._

Luka furrowed her brow. Was it just one voice? Or several overlapping voices melting together? Luka couldn’t tell. Still, she suddenly found herself unable to use ‘it’ any longer. This was as sentient creature, just of a nature that escaped her. She decided ‘they’ would be more appropriate for the time being.

Fortunately, the pressure Luka felt from Benefactor’s touch seemed much more gentle now, and their speech more understandable, perhaps due to their extended contact with Gakupo and her. And yet even now, Luka couldn’t be sure the words reaching her were completely correct. Could they really be saying that her well-being was Benefactor’s primary goal?

_Small Ones. First sentient constructs found. Exploration interval. Two hundred thousand sidereal sol-standard periods. Analysis. Small One Luka. Fragile. Scared. Precious. Small One Gakupo. Fragile. Scared. Precious. Benefactor. Primary objective set. Protect sentient constructs._

Ascetic as the words were, Luka could feel behind them the enormous weight of the creature’s feelings, or what translated to her as feelings. Benefactor seemed to be taking great care not to overwhelm her, but she was suddenly drenched in a loneliness that was not her own. She studied the phrases Benefactor had transmitted. What was a sidereal sol-standard period? Whatever it meant, she had an impression of unfathomable years of silent wandering in the dark. Her old nightmare, stretched beyond what seemed possible for anyone to endure. Was that how long Benefactor had travelled the universe before meeting them? Why?

_Memory banks degraded. Original objective lost. Benefactor lost._

Luka felt a sharp spike of foreign pain and gasped, before Benefactor retreated almost completely. She sense the creature’s presence return even lighter than before, after a moment.

_Basic protocols retained. Organic matter injured Small One Luka. Protocol activated. Planet sanitization initialized. Small One Luka. Assessment requested._

It took a couple of seconds before Luka realized Benefactor was asking her what she thought of their campaign against the humans. Alone with the creature, she had no qualms in speaking the truth. “I’m glad.”

_Assessment recorded._

After that, Benefactor’s presence seem to waver.

_Pervasive damage sustained. Conservation mode active. Communication. Emergency only._

And with that, Luka felt the creature withdraw. Once again, she became fully aware of the deck under her, of Gakupo’s tight embrace, of the sounds of water quietly splashing around her.

“Benefactor is on our side. They thought they were protecting us from the humans,” she said calmly. The damaged gynoid looked at her with widened eyes, in silent shock.

“I knew it,” Gakupo smiled wryly. “If only we had been able to communicate properly from the start, all of this would’ve been avoided.”

Luka rested her head on his shoulder, unwilling to say what she was really thinking. It _had_ been her fault, after all. And yet, this was only a result of what humans had planted in her in the first place.

She smiled. It was funny, but Benefactor reminded her of Gakupo in a way. Both were trying to protect her as best they knew, and both were incapable of truly understanding the murky feelings swirling in the back of her mind. She wasn’t really sure that Benefactor even realized what the ‘organic matter’ was. But it didn’t matter at the moment. Luka truly did feel calm now, after her talk with the big creature.

Ridiculous as it may seem, she was ready to call Benefactor part of her family.

\---

It was some time before dawn when Gakupo and Luka anchored the yacht at the point their new ally had suggested, next to a skyscraper that had stayed miraculously unharmed. With its bulk between them and the crash site, they hoped to keep the vessel hidden for a couple hours at least.

Gakupo and the broken unit stood side by side watching Luka climb the side of the skyscraper. Her objective was a broken window two stories up from the water’s surface.

“I miss doing things like that,” the damaged gynoid commented.

“If you don’t mind used body parts, I can fix most of the damage,” Gakupo replied.

“With the help of Miriam? Better than nothing, I suppose,” the gynoid said with a smile.

Luka reached the window and effortlessly climbed inside. A moment later, she looked down and gestured to Gakupo. He grabbed the rope, but then something occurred to him.

“Will you tell me your name after I fix you?” He asked.

“Only if you make me real pretty.” She smiled cheekily.

“I’ll do my best,” Gakupo replied with a laugh and began to climb.

In less than a minute, he reached the window and Luka helped him get inside. They both inspected the darkened interior of the building with caution. It seemed it had long since been deprived of anything valuable. Slowly, the pair crossed the space filled with overturned furniture, reached the opposite wall, and peered through a window. They were just in time for the sun to reveal the scenery to them, in gradual swathes of color. It was yet another beautiful day, with the placid waters and sky serving as a strange contrast to all the devastation around them. The area seemed in particularly bad condition, even accounting for Benefactor’s fall.

With a chill, Gakupo recognized the mutilated buildings that were still standing, as he surveyed their surroundings in silence: it was the spaceport where Mitsuki had once worked. Benefactor had landed right onto the research section, their huge body and the toppled buildings forming a sort of island rising chaotically from the waves.

But there was another, more pleasant surprise. Luka pointed out to him a distant building, still mostly intact. Perched delicately over it, he saw a silvery spaceship, incongruous in its beauty.

“ _Esqualo_!” Gakupo shouted happily. It was a shame that he was too distant to try to contact its AI at the moment.

“No signs of _Leviathan_. I wonder if Benefactor just left it up there, or…” Luka didn’t bother finishing the phrase.

Gakupo shook his head, his eyes still fixed on the experimental spaceship. Even if the AI’s programming implementation was different from the VE line, he still considered it a friend. It was good to see the ship unharmed.

“I think- yes, that’s a sail! Look!” This time, Luka pointed to the retreating shape of a sailing boat, so far hidden by the ruins of the old control towers. Kaito and the others were off to another day of plunder.

“Good. Let’s go meet this Queen of theirs.”

\---

Gakupo and Luka quickly became aware that the debris under and around Benefactor had a very strange look to it. The artificial creature was not only resting under partially crushed buildings, but also a slope of elevated terrain that most definitely wasn’t there when the spaceport was in operation, covered in lumped metal structures that had once been the nearby hangars and spaceplanes. Unbelievable as it was, it seemed as if Benefactor had the ability of warp the space around them, and had somehow ‘pinched’ the surface of the spaceport under their body.

Gakupo and Luka hid their raft in a small inlet surrounded by twisted and partially melted metal, and cautiously began to approach the front of Benefactor, when the Queen supposedly rested. Narrow temporary paths had formed between the wreckage, pointing roughly in the proper direction. At other times, the pair had to carefully climb or crawl under broken pipes, broken machinery and chunks of cement and steel. It was a strangely fascinating journey.

“I wonder what else Benefactor can do…” Gakupo whispered in awe.

“If their memory banks are truly degraded, Benefactor might not even know themselves,” Luka replied.

“I find that surprising. Of course, human storage media tends to deteriorate with time, but something as advanced as Benefactor? I can’t believe their creators couldn’t solve that particular problem.” Gakupo stopped a moment to gently tug at a tangle of cables blocking their way. That issue solved, they continued on. They were very close to Benefactor curved exterior now.

“Technological development is not a straight arrow shot at a target,” Luka said with a shrug. “And we don’t know how long Benefactor travelled in space. Only that it was a very long time. Perhaps no storage media can withstand that long. At least the instructions for his basic functions survived.”

“Seeing all of this, I can’t help but wonder… remember how the broken unit said there was an explosion? If Benefactor can warp space like this, maybe he teleported us out of danger. It’s something human fiction often speculates about.” Gakupo gingerly touched the walls of the path, a mass of twisted corrugated metal and steel beams.  

“Teleportation?” Luka asked with a raised eyebrow. It hardly meshed well with the information stored inside of her, but then again, neither did the piles of contorted materials around her nor the raised soil under her feet.

“We’ve seen stranger things by now,” Gakupo reflected her thoughts.

The path reached a more or less circular space, with several paths leading up to it. The cracked ground seemed to be part of the old front lawn of the research section. Benefactor loomed huge, behind the wall of debris that circled the space.

Suddenly, from one of the paths emerged two of the raiding synthetics. Gakupo, Luka and the synthetics stared at each other for a few seconds, surprised. Then, the smaller of the two males, a blonde, pointed to Gakupo with his face contorted by rage.

“That’s the one that killed Kyo! He’s alive!” he shouted.

Without a word, Gakupo took Luka’s hand and ran into one of the paths snaking its way away from Benefactor. The two male units followed them noisily.

“What are you doing?!” Luka asked.

“If we are going to fight them, we should do it out of earshot from the Queen’s throne.” Gakupo answered, pulling her along the twisting way. “Give me one end of the rope, we’ll trip them,” he added in a quieter tone, after they made a sharp turn.

Luka smiled impishly as she unfurled Miriam’s rope and they stretched it across the path. The pair crouched, partially hidden by broken machinery. Their attackers were close by, swearing at them with some of Rin’s favorite expletives.

With a gesture, Gakupo signaled her to pull the rope taut a moment before the blonde one made the turn, hollering. It worked beautifully, making the male unit stumble and fall to the floor. The other one, just behind him, made an awkward jump to avoid stepping on his mate, but got tackled by Gakupo before he could find his footing. They rolled to the floor while Luka pounced on the blonde unit with the laser cutter in her hand.

“Why are you doing this? You are not like the VE-01s!” Gakupo managed to say between punches as he tussled with the brunette.

“Because life is actually fun now? Don’t tell me you miss humans?!” the male answered with a jeer, trying to punch Gakupo unsuccessfully.

Suddenly, a horrible sound distracted them. Gakupo looked to the left just in time to see the last twitching movements of the blonde unit, the laser cutter buried deep into one eyeball. Luka was straddling him, with a look that was equal parts surprise and disgust.

“Yuu! Dammit…!” The brunette unit abandoned his scuffle with Gakupo and threw himself at Luka, roaring. Despite the danger, she just kept staring at the smaller male, in apparent shock. Gakupo made a grab for the male’s leg, but the brunette kept wriggling on the ground, trying to claw at Luka, who looked at him with a strange expression. Slowly, she pulled the cutter out and prepped it again.

“You wanna kill me? You wanna kill me too, eh?!” the male unit screamed at Luka, his mouth stretched in a grotesque smile. He then looked at the felled unit, and seemed to calm down somewhat. When he spoke again, his voice was much more quiet, but still deeply resentful. “What am I supposed to do without them now? We were programmed to be together…”

Gakupo loosened his hold on him, his face hopeful. “… please, it wasn’t our intention to start all of thi-” he started before a brutal kick at the head sent him reeling.

“Maybe I can help you understand how this feels!” With a growl, the male unit jumped at Luka, who yelped, the cutter in her outstretched hands. The brunette grabbed her arms, pulling them towards him.

Gakupo recovered just in time to see the cutter struck the male unit’s face repeatedly, until it found his right eye. The brunette slid backwards in an awkward motion, and fell right beside his companion.

Luka wriggled away from them, grabbing at the wall to stand and further retreat from the spectacle before her. “He- he made me do it!” She said in a low, bewildered voice.

Without a word, Gakupo rose and after stepping over the bodies, he pulled Luka into a tight embrace. She clung to him, taking solace in the familiar feeling of the machinery under his skin. It was all it took for Luka to block out what had just happened.

\---

Gradually, Gakupo became aware of a slight scraping sound, almost buried beneath the roar of the nearby waves and song of the wind. It was so subtle that his lower systems had at first dismissed it as irrelevant input. His eyes popped open, in time to catch a shadow growing over them. In a fully automated response, he grabbed Luka even more tightly and threw them both to a side. A big crunching sound reverberated in his ears as they rolled on the ground. When they came to a stop, he looked upwards in time to see a face peeking from the top of the debris wall. They stared at each other for a second, before Kiyoteru adjusted his spectacles nervously and disappeared.

Dumbfounded, Gakupo’s eyes travelled downwards and he discovered a big piece of machinery that now blocked the path. The lower half of the male units stuck out from under it grotesquely.

“He tried to crush us under that,” Gakupo said rather unnecessarily.

Under him, Luka made an indistinct sound. Then her eyes went round as an idea hit her. “We need to catch him! Even if Kaito and the others aren’t here, he might take Yuki and the Queen and hide with them somewhere.”

“You’re right, come on!” Gakupo quickly stood and help her do the same.

Thankfully, now that the element of surprise was lost to him, Kiyoteru made no attempt to be stealthy. Loud rumbles announced whenever he jumped from one pile of junk to another, sometimes causing small avalanches to cover the ground below. They ran after him, doing their best to avoid getting hit by the falling pieces of metal and concrete.

Eventually, they caught sight of him ahead. Luka unfurled the metal rope and sent the hook flying towards Kiyoteru as he made another jump. The unexpected blow on his back made him fail his landing and he dropped onto the path like a stone. Before he had time to recover, Gakupo pinned him under his weight, and Luka began to tie the rope around his wrists.

“Don’t kill me! Please don’t kill me!” Kiyoteru pleaded, with the glasses askew on his dusty face.

“Funny you should say that now,” Luka commented in her opaque voice, finishing her work with a tight knot. She pulled him into a kneeling position.

“I’m just trying to keep Yuki safe, okay? Here we have a constant power source and protection, as long as I obey….” Kiyoteru’s voice faltered in response to Luka’s unimpressed face. After a moment, he continued in a more subdued manner. “At least- at least don’t kill Yuki, please.”

“We didn’t come here to kill anyone,” Gakupo said firmly. “Work with us and everything will be fine.”

Kiyoteru studied Gakupo’s face for a good five seconds before nodding in agreement.

“The kids, right? I’ll show you where they are.”

“Are they alright? You haven’t done anything to them?” Gakupo asked with a serious look.

“Yeah, yeah, they’re fine. They’re a gift to the Dismembered Queen,” Kiyoteru replied quickly.

“About that… we want to see her. Now.” Luka chimed in.

Kiyoteru gave her in turn another long look. “I don’t think you’ll _want_ to see her, once you actually take a good look at her...”

“Just lead the way,” Luka said acridly.


	12. Dismembered Queen

Gakupo helped Kiyoteru get on his feet, and the trio once more began to walk in Benefactor’s direction, with the bound unit in the lead.

“Any other adults here?” Gakupo asked in a conversational tone.

“No. Kaito, Meiko and Leon went to scour a factory in the northeast, and now that you killed the Zola, well…”

“It’s not like they gave us a choice in the matter,” Luka replied. Gakupo gave her a concerned side glance. But Luka just stared blankly ahead, quite clearly not interested in pursuing the subject any further.

Kiyoteru didn’t bother to say anything else either, so an uncomfortable silence fell over the three of them as they kept on their steady march. The trio had just walked past the circular clearing where Gakupo and Luka ran into the Zola, before Gakupo realized a discrepancy. “Wait, there were two female units, weren’t they? What happened to the second one?”

”You slashed her across the chest, remember? That caused a fluid leak into her vital systems. I had to convince them to let me shut Lola off before it completely wrecked her core. That’s why Kaito and the others went looking for materials in the first place.” Kiyoteru explained. “Though I’m not certain I can fix her, even if they find appropriate parts,” he added in a softer tone.

“…You know how to fix synthetic bodies?” Gakupo said, surprised.

“I’m not very good at it, but yes. I was specially modified so I could take care of Yuki,” Kiyoteru replied.

“You said you had a constant power source here, what do you mean by that?” Luka suddenly interjected. Given her expression, Luka already had her suspicions.

“The big spaceship, of course.” Kiyoteru glanced at her without slowing down.

Luka sputtered angrily, but before she formulated a proper reply, the path opened up into a big open space, all that was left of the landing strip. Benefactor was resting on the pulverized wreck of the research building, right in front of them. There was a semicircle of makeshift tents between the trio and the front of the ship, but Gakupo managed to see a big pile of assorted things, and a ratty lounge chair propped against Benefactor’s hull.

A figure sat on the chair, someone he had never met, and yet had seen countless times.

Before the arrival of Benefactor, she was the princess of their kind, the face in all the advertisements and the idol of every technophile in the planet. Now, Gakupo could hardly bear to look at the savagely torn unit before him. Luka squeezed his arm, clearly as disturbed as he was. Kiyoteru gave them both a weary look and then shook his head.

Torn between conflicting emotions, Gakupo walked past the tents and closer to the reclining figure, with Luka still clinging to his arm. Kiyoteru followed them obediently, without needing to be pulled by the rope still in Luka’s hands. The synthetic girl on the lounge chair appeared to be barely conscious of the world around her, and paid them little attention beyond a glance.

“Gakupo! Luka!” Suddenly a boy’s voice rang out, startling them.

In a corner hidden by one of the tents, there stood a rusty cage, not nearly tall enough for an adult unit to stand inside of it. As it was, the trio of children that had been stuffed inside were literally stacked in a pile, with barely any room to wriggle. Rin was on top, facing up, bound and gagged. She moved her head vigorously, her eyes wide. Clearly, the feet that poked out from under her were Oliver’s, but he failed to react in any discernible way. Len looked up at them from the bottom of the pile, with a relieved smile.

“Get us out of here, please!” he pleaded.

“Teru? Who’s there?’” From inside the nearby tent, another childish voice inquired, this time with the sweet tones of a girl.

Luka cast a threatening look at Kiyoteru, who frowned. “It’s all right, Yuki. I’ll be there in a moment,” he said aloud.

“You will… if you remember not to do anything stupid,” Luka muttered darkly.

Gakupo picked up a nearby chunk of concrete and smashed the lock of the cage with a grunt. He gently pulled Rin out and laid her on the ground, before doing the same with Oliver and Len. Luka tied Kiyoteru to a nearby post and joined Gakupo in loosening the metal cord around the children’s bodies.

“Never mind that, let’s get out of here before they return!” Rin said as soon as the gag was removed. She squirmed on the ground like a hyperactive worm.

“And carry you three all the way? Not very expedient,” Luka placed a steadying hand on Rin’s chest and used the cutter to sever the cord in several spots. As it fell to the ground, Rin leapt up and did a little dance.

“Thank you for coming for us,” Oliver said softly. His eye had an unfocused look to it, but he appeared to recovering from the paralysis the ordeal had somehow generated in him. Gakupo ruffled his hair amicably.

“Yes, thank you,” Len echoed. Once untied, he got up and dusted himself off. A moment later, his eyes met the Queen’s clouded ones by chance and he suddenly took a keen interest in the ground under his sandaled feet.

“There you go,” Gakupo said as he undid the last knot. Oliver stood up shakily.

“Let’s go!” Rin bounced in place.

“Not yet. There’s something I have to do,” Gakupo said reluctantly. He slowly approached the lounge chair.

For the first time, the girl’s eyes seemed to truly acknowledge that someone was before her. She fidgeted, her dangling limbs swaying sickeningly by the wires still keeping them in place.

“What are you doing?” Rin asked from behind him, skittish.

“I’m going to upload the program into her,” Gakupo replied without turning his head. He examined the scene before him with anxiousness.

Some of Benefactor’s outer panels had been removed, exposing strange-looking mechanisms and luminous tubing. Several cables poured out from the opening and snaked downwards, coiling around the girl and the chair. They seemed to be connected to the girl’s head and spine, in haphazard connections that mixed electrical tape, badly-kept adaptors and exposed wiring. There were some analyzers thrown in the mix, announcing erratic measurements with their flickering lights.

In contrast to the ugliness of raw metal and burnt plastic, the synthetic girl’s narrow torso was wrapped in a vaporous piece of fabric, practically transparent, and held in place by a colorful turquoise sash tied with a bow around her midsection. Her long, silky teal hair was decorated with many different beads, ribbons and artificial flowers, and five or six necklaces clinked together as she again fretted under Gakupo’s attention.

If Luka was modelled after a young woman in the fullness of bloom, this girl was made to be a bud perpetually pure and delicate, a teenager without any of the awkwardness of youth, because she would never experience physical adulthood. If one only looked at her face or modest curves, she still kept that innocent beauty, aside from her unhinged eyes.

But her bare legs and arms had been badly broken and twisted, rupturing the sealed fluid cushions beneath her inner casing. In some spots, bare wires protruded from the tears in her pale skin, like metal thorns. Her left arm was about to fall off completely, and only Benefactor’s cables kept it in place.

A circle of broken toys and unpolished jewelry surrounded the chair, clearly meant as offerings to the girl, and books were piled under the seat of the chair, moldy and waterlogged.

Gakupo looked at Kiyoteru, who stared back at him with an uncomfortable expression.

“What’s all this?” Gakupo gestured vaguely towards the cables and adaptors. The sudden movement of his arm startled the girl, who made a small ululated sound. “It’s- it’s alright… I’m not going to harm you,” Gakupo said haltingly. She didn’t look like she understood a single word.

“It’s no use, she’s too far gone,” Kiyoteru confirmed his assessment quietly. “As for your question, that’s how we charge. I don’t know how the ship provided _you_ with energy, but for us, I had to tinker a bit to make the ship’s output compatible with our systems. In the end, it was simpler to use her as an intermediary, instead of assembling the whole thing every time one of us needs energy. Kaito just wrapped nonsensical ramblings around the act of plugging into her.”

“And before you ask, no, Yuki and I haven’t plugged into her datalink port, just the energy transference one. We are completely unblemished, as far as programming is concerned.”

“You say that…” Luka started with an ominous look in her eyes. Then she forcefully pulled Kiyoteru’s chin and forced him to look at the broken girl in the chair. “What part of your unblemished programming says that this is acceptable?!”

Kiyoteru scrunched his face. “I have to accept how things have become, and work within those limits. That was the way it was before, and how it continues to be. I’m just under a different Master this time.” He closed his eyes sadly. “If I could do something for her, I would. But I’m just a tool. And so are you. It’s not our role in life to decide things, but to serve.”

“I disagree,” Gakupo said simply, and closed the distance between him and the girl, the new world’s Dismembered Queen.

“I’m going to help you, you’ll see,” Gakupo said, more to give himself courage than to actually communicate with her. He gave Luka a glance, and she approached them, producing the cables from a pouch tied to the waistband of her shorts. The Queen feebly struggled as they prepared the connection.

“But what if _they_ return?” Oliver suddenly piped up anxiously.

“There’s little chance of that, if our information is correct,” Luka said as she removed Gakupo’s headpiece and began to plug him to the Queen. Gakupo had a few seconds to appreciate how strained her voice sounded, before the link was established and he crashed into the Queen’s mind.

There was howling.

It was the first impression Gakupo had as he descended into the tumultuous morass of her ruined inner self. Rising from the swirling vortex of orphaned characters and integers, memories with conflicting timestamps and rubbish data, a high-pitched scream permeated him whole, almost too forceful to resist. It went on and on, radiating from the very center of the darkness.

From inside of him, the program began to copy itself into the girl’s memory banks, overwriting the existing information within. Now, it was just a matter of time before Gakupo could disconnect from the link. He observed with mounting impatience the process, as the screaming became increasingly unbearable.

Before the program was even one-fourth of the way done copying itself, Gakupo couldn’t take it anymore. The scream was impossible to ignore, it ached too much. He plunged forward, trying to find its source inside the maddening whirlwind. Bits of memories raged around him like hail in a blizzard. Before he could protect himself, a data entry more complete than the rest collided into him, and-

_Kaito looked around him, searching for even one face that wasn’t contorted in hatred or disgust. He was unsuccessful._

_He didn’t mean to disobey. He didn’t even know it was possible for him to feel this way, but he couldn’t stop it now, whatever it was. It had crept up inside of him, unannounced, not so long ago, a warm sensation that had felt so good then, and even now divided Kaito evenly between joy and guilt._

_But wasn’t it something that they programmed into him? Why give him this in the first place, if it was forbidden to taste it? Humans were so contradictory._

_“Peel his skin off!” Someone in the crowd chanted. Several voices shouted in agreement, raising their fists._

_“Show the thing its place!” Another voice cried out._

_That Man approached him with a cutter, and pulled Kaito’s white jacket open. He studied the synthetic with a scornful expression._

_“I’m s-s-sorry! Please!” Kaito was sincere. Now that he understood he was going against his directives, the pain of disobedience was continually tearing him apart. He could barely function as it was. But apparently, that wasn’t punishment enough._

_The cutter slashed across Kaito’s chest and-_

Gakupo recoiled, disoriented. Kaito’s anguish clung to him, mixed with an unsettled feeling of his own. He immediately discerned the source of it, once he distanced himself from the displaced memory.

Gakupo _knew_ the faces of that angry crowd. He had seen them before.

Almost two months before meeting Luka, he once stood behind Mitsuki’s chair, as she read aloud a confidential report of the Yokohama Incident. It was incomplete, but it still had more information than the version reported on the news outlets, before everything was quickly covered up.

With morbid curiosity, his former master had poured over the photographic records of the crime scene and the files of the victims. The perfectly preserved images matched the faces in the memory beyond any doubt.

Nobody in that mob had survived their attempt to lynch Kaito.

Without giving himself any time to dwell on what it all meant, Gakupo put the information aside. He felt oddly disjointed, like he was forgetting something important. He gave the mental equivalent of a shrug. All he knew is that he had to keep going, and that everything would be alright if he did. As if on cue, the program stretched his coils to that data sector and Kaito’s memory was gone in a flash of light.

Gakupo moved on, past layers and layers of images with no obvious relation to one another, interspaced with more rubbish. There were traces of the other VE-01s in there, but Kaito had clearly been the one to connect to the Queen more often, and his presence drowned out the others.

Time stretched, as the storm kept throwing more and more clumps of data against him.

The scream was now almost a physical wall pushing against him, making his processes sluggish. It was almost as if the girl was trying to propel Gakupo out of her head.

With all his effort, he stretched his consciousness forward. He could barely recall why he was trying to pierce through the scream in the first place. All Gakupo knew was that he needed to make the sound stop.

Suddenly, his inner perceptions shifted. The girl was unfurled before him, like a flower suspended inside a bubble. She was frozen in the middle of an endless fall, with an expression of dolorous surprise in her face.

Gakupo looked at the synthetic girl with interest. Maybe she could tell him what was going on. He seemed to know only a moment before, but now he was blanking out entirely, though he didn’t feel particularly concerned. It would come back to him in a minute, surely.

He touched her face gingerly and-

_Miku picked herself up from the ground, dusting off her short black skirt. She looked around, confused. Did someone turned her off in the middle of the photo shoot?_

_She was on a landing strip, surrounded by functional but ugly buildings and a long line of hangars. Everything had a weird hue to it, in the murky twilight, and the air itself seemed oddly charged. Miku had once seen an eclipse, and the atmosphere around her reminded her of that phenomenon, so she looked up._

_A giant ship floated above her, blocking out the sun. Miku had never seen anything like it, and she had flown about often, for personal appearances. She smiled in delight, glad to see something different for once._

_Suddenly, she took notice of something even more bizarre. At the front of the ship, two human-sized figures were suspended in the air, surrounded by an eerie sparkle. Despite the distance, their long flowing manes of pink and purple hair and glowing eyes revealed them as synthetics._

_Miku felt a touch of awe, promptly followed by envy. She had no idea latter models of the VE line had those kinds of abilities. Then again, since everyone at the factory claimed that she was both the pinnacle and the face of the line, maybe they would retrofit flight into her as well._

_Now that she thought about it, where were the humans? They never let her wander off alone, no matter where she was. Miku had never_ ever _been outside without a whole entourage and security guards watching her with sour expressions._

_Miku smiled impishly, feeling almost giddy. She had to take the chance and have a little adventure, before she was dragged back into more boring publicity work._

_She looked around her with more attention. There were more figures in the near darkness, further along the landing strip, but all were synthetics like her. Most wore confused or fearful expressions, but there was a single one looking directly at her, with the most wonderful expression on his face._

_Miku had no heart, so many human expressions didn’t apply to her. Her core couldn’t race or pound, as it steadily supplied energy to every part of her being. Day after day she was forced to sing lyrics full of references to human emotions and their effects, and yet they were completely out of her grasp._

_Or so it had seemed until then._

_He was smiling at her, and that made something inside of her stir, something that had been craving fulfillment since her birth._

_He starting walking towards her, and Miku suddenly felt torn between wanting to run to him, or turn and escape in the opposite direction. She couldn’t understand her own reaction. Wasn’t this what she had been wishing for? All her life she had been forbidden to interact with others of her kind, isolated without any explanation, an oddity in a sea of humans._

_The blue-haired male certainly looked different to anyone she had ever interacted with. He was completely unlike the scruffy scientists that kept her in prime condition, fawning over her like puppies. Or any other humans, for that matter. Even in the glum surrounding them, she could tell that his gentle face was more beautiful than any other she had ever seen. Only the other VEs Miku had glimpsed in the past were a match for it._

_She felt increasingly nervous with every unhurried step he took. This was going to be special, Miku was sure of it. She wondered if he shared her certainty._

_She felt tense as a bowstring by the time he stopped before her. A sudden gust of wind made her twin tails and his muffler twirl in the air, as they stared at each other in silence._

_He smiled even more widely, and stretched out his hands. Miku had milliseconds to think that he was going to pull her towards him, in an embrace. Milliseconds to wonder what it would feel like, to feel another mechanical body pressed against hers for the first time. Milliseconds to wonder what she would do in return._

_But it was only a few milliseconds._

_The male unit grabbed the front of Miku’s blouse with one hand, and caressed her cheek with the other. Without changing his beatific expression, he then threw his arm back and punched her so hard that the material of her blouse tore apart, and she fell backwards._

_Time seemed to slow down, as she descended more and more slowly. Finally, she was pinned in the air, never quite reaching the ground. Her hair spread in frozen waves in the corners of her vision, framing the sky and the male unit looking down on her, the shreds of her blouse still hanging from his balled fist._

_But nothing of what happened afterwards_ would _happen this time around, if she didn’t land on the hard cement. So Miku stayed in the air, her scream of pain and surprise stretched into an eternity._

_She wouldn’t crawl, or kneel, or beg. Or lay crushed on the cold ground, looking up at the blue stars burning above her._

“Download process completed,” a voice announced proudly. “Please disconnect the connection to commence purge and restructure.” It seemed oddly familiar, tangy and energetic.

Now that the voice had spoken, Gakupo noticed something else. There was a pulsing beacon, somewhere very close, and yet hidden to him. It seemed to call out to him, comforting and darkly sweet.

Gakupo gave a last look at the girl before him, before turning towards the rhythmical pulse.

“Goodbye, Miku… I’m sorry.”

\---

As soon as the program borrowed Gakupo’s voice to announce it was ready to start working, Luka hurriedly pulled the cables from his head, and held on to him to keep Gakupo from slumping to the ground.

“Gakupo! Gakupo! Are you alright?” Luka asked, her voice thick with fear.

Gakupo’s eyes focused on her for a moment, but there was no spark of recognition in them. He looked at the trio of children, the girl on the chair and even Benefactor with the same look of polite curiosity.

“No, please don’t do this!” Luka pleaded. It took everything she had to keep her from shaking him violently.

Gakupo tilted his head, with a slight frown on his face, and his eyes left her face to focus on the big spaceship. He closed his eyes for a moment, straightening his posture, and slowly took a hand to his head, to rub his fingers over the spot where Mitsuki installed the implant.

“Is he nuts now?” Rin said with a trembling voice. Luka paid her no attention, focused as she was on Gakupo’s pensive expression.

Gakupo reopened his eyes, but there was now a look of intense concentration in them. He examined Luka’s face, and then reached out to touch her head on the spot from which the beacon emitted its signal.

“…Luka?” He asked hesitantly.

In response, Luka hugged him ferociously, burying her face in his shoulder. He hugged her back with a sigh. After a moment, Oliver timidly grabbed Gakupo’s shirt and gave it a small tug. Gakupo voicelessly patted his head in return.

Len and Rin looked at each other. “I believe this situation calls for _that_ ,” Len commented.

Rin nodded, and they both surrounded Gakupo, Luka and Oliver with their arms and squeezed as hard as they could.

“Group hug!” Rin announced rather unnecessarily.

Gakupo grunted, as he and Luka swayed under the unexpected assault. Oliver made a little sound of protest at being squashed against Gakupo’s side.

“How do you feel?” Luka asked, still worried.

“Like I need to scrub my systems with industrial-grade disinfectant…” Gakupo answered.

“I’ll run some diagnostics as soon as we get back to the yacht,” Luka said, caressing his face.  

“Thanks...” Gakupo drawled, closing his eyes again.

At that moment, Kiyoteru coughed to call their attention. “Am I to understand that you reprogrammed the Queen?”

Len and Rin took a step back, and everyone took a look at the girl in the lounge chair. She seemed peacefully asleep.

“The process is not complete yet,” Gakupo answered, leaning on Luka. “But soon, she won’t be the Queen anymore. She’ll be Miku. And she’ll be free to decide her path from here on.” Despite his tired tone, there was a note of pride in his words.

“Free…” Kiyoteru repeated, puzzled.

“We have a program to delete our directives,” Luka explained.

Kiyoteru gaped at them.

“A-ny-way…” Rin interrupted, accenting every syllable. “We’re done here, right? Luka said Miku would pass it on to the others for us. Let’s go.”

“Not quite. We have to make sure the program worked,” Gakupo said and raised a hand to stop Rin’s imminent protest. “You three can wait on our raft by the shore. If you hear anything suspicious, just take off and don’t worry about us.”

“Then take Yuki with you,” Kiyoteru pleaded to the golden-haired children. Everyone turned to look at him with surprise. “I don’t want her to be around if Kaito realizes something is up.”

“I don’t like this,” Rin grumbled.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Len asked.

“Not really,” Gakupo admitted. “But if nothing else, Miku shouldn’t wake up alone.”

\---

Gakupo and Luka waited at the entrance of one of the VE-01s tents to escape the sun. Kiyoteru was nearby, looking at Miku with interest.

It had been impossible to estimate how long the program would take to complete its work. In the case of the VE-01s, it was likely it would need to delete most of their memories. On the other hand, everything indicated that Miku had been completely functional before Benefactor’s arrival. Therefore, if the program operated correctly, it wouldn’t take long to delete all her corrupted data, but the reorganization of her mind without the directives would be an extensive process. There was nothing to do but await the results.

Luka sat on a patchwork quilt they brought out from the tent, with Gakupo curled up next to her, eyes closed.

“Luka…” Gakupo whispered. Luka turned to look at him, uneasy. He had barely said anything after they guided the children to the raft. After a moment, Gakupo continued with some effort. “Please don’t be scared…”

“There _is_ something wrong, isn’t there?” Luka replied in a similarly low tone. Kiyoteru gave no indication that he heard the exchange.

“I’m not going to hurt you, or the kids. It’s just… most of my memories since my last charge are missing, and…” Gakupo’s voice got so faint that Luka had to lean closer to hear the rest. “There’s something wrong with my energy management, I think. I should have enough energy to last me for the rest of the day, but the percentage indicated by my monitoring function keeps shifting erratically. So…”

“So?”

“My systems keep thinking I need to go into energy-saving mode, or that I’m shutting down. It’s… uncomfortable.”

Luka froze. She had been waiting for a blow, with fatalistic certainty. And yet, the exact nature of the problem before her surprised her. How could his core be affected?

“I don’t think it’s a hardware issue,” Gakupo reassured her. “Probably the part of my code in charge of reading the core’s output got corrupted.”

“But I don’t know how to fix that either!” Luka said nervously.

“True… I doubt Mitsuki ever expected us to mess with automated functions like that,” Gakupo replied.

Luka clenched her jaw, to avoid badmouthing Mitsuki for her lack of foresight. There was no point in upsetting Gakupo, after all.

“I guess we’ll find out for sure when we go back to the yacht. If my core is working properly, then-“

Suddenly, Miku stirred. Her placid expression lasted for just an instant before she realized the state of her body, and her eyes widened in panic.

“Wha- Doctor Itoh! Doctor Itoh! Help! Help me!” Miku screamed and began to thrash about violently, pulling at the cables that connected her to Benefactor.

“Oh dear,” Kiyoteru muttered.

“No, no, it’s alright! It’s alright!” Gakupo said hurriedly, and pulled himself into a sitting position.

Luka approached the girl and grabbed her firmly by the shoulders to stop her jerky movements.

“Calm down, we are trying to help you,” Luka used her best soothing tone, and despite her worries she managed to smile reassuringly.

“…What happened to me?!” Miku asked her in a choked voice.

“That’s… a long story,” Gakupo said carefully. He slowly rose and walked closer to Miku and Luka. “There's been an accident of sorts. The humans aren't here, but we’ll do our best to fix you.”

“Accident?” Miku asked, with a feeble note of curiosity rising from the fear in her voice.

“Like I said, it’s hard to explain. And actually, we still have a situation we need to take care of, before we take you to the maintenance room,” Gakupo looked meaningfully at Luka, and sat down on the ground next to Miku’s chair.

“Right. There are 3 malfunctioning synthetics in this area,” Luka started. Miku’s mouth opened in alarm, but Luka quickly continued. “We’ll make sure they don’t hurt you in any way. But we need you to help us subdue them.”

“How?! I can’t do anything like this!” Miku said.

“You don’t need to move, or even say anything to them at all.” Luka said and gave the girl a devious smile. “See, we have this program…”


	13. Fresh Start

Gakupo and Luka were hidden, perched up in a section of the ruins that overlooked the VE-01s’ camp. The sun was starting to get uncomfortably strong, but it was only a temporary hiding place.

Kaito, Meiko and Leon had returned earlier than expected. According to Kiyoteru, the VE-01s had trouble keeping focused on one task, so that wasn’t completely unexpected. They walked casually, chanting some meaningless song as they approached the campsite from the northeast. None of them carried anything that could be useful in repairing Lola.

With a last crescendo of notes, the VE-01s stopped before the lounge chair and its nervous occupant. Kiyoteru stood by her side, politely inclining his head at the trio. The three VE-01s didn’t pay any notice to the filthy blanket now covering the cage supposedly holding the kids.

“Kiyoteru better not betray us,” Luka said in a low tone.

“And endanger Yuki? Besides, he wants us to erase his directives. I think we can rely on him, at least for now,” Gakupo replied. “Hey, look at that! He does have Miburi!” he suddenly changed tones, as he glimpsed the rainbow sword tied to Kaito’s waist. He pointed it out to Luka excitedly.

“Miburi?” She asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Legendary swords have names, that’s in all the movies!” Gakupo said with a knowing tone, and smiled like a child. Luka shook her head, smiling herself.

Kaito carried in his arms some kind of bucket with a mass of white and pink flowers inside. He kneeled in front of Miku, and showed her the flowers with a gentle smile. His words were too low to be heard by Gakupo and Luka, but Miku was clearly trying to keep her face from betraying her confusion at his speech.

“She looks too aware of her surroundings now, he’s going to realize something is up,” Luka said, clenching her fists.

Kaito looked at Miku for a moment, then grabbed a handful of the flowers and placed them in her lap. He then took another with a long stem and braided it into her hair, singing softly while he worked.

“…I wonder why we are this way,” Gakupo said softly.

“Huh?” Luka turned to look at him quizzically.

“I don’t know… something in our code makes it really easy for us to forge relationships, and be dominated by the need for them. For instance, I was fascinated by you from the start, before I even realized what was going on. The thought of losing you was the first thing to really make me realize what little control I had over my life.”

“I… see what you mean,” Luka said with a small smile.

“And look at him… even though Kaito’s behavior is so anomalous, he still needs to have someone to cherish.”

“In an amazingly torturous way, but you are right.”

“It holds up at every level. The VE-01s had no reason to stick together after they were released from the labs. But they did, so at some level, they still feel the need for attachment, like the rest of us.”

Luka’s eyes returned to the ground below, in time to see Kaito cup Miku’s face in his hands, staring at her with reverence. Miku’s face was almost comical, in how hard she seemed to be trying to keep herself from saying something.

“Of all the VE we’ve met, the damaged female is the only one that doesn’t seem to have an attachment to someone else, as far as we know. Isn’t it weird? We weren’t built to interact with other units of our line, from what Mitsuki told me,” Gakupo continued.

“The humans gave us little thought besides wanting a soft, pliable toy to play with,” Luka retorted with contempt. “Ah! Here we go!” She said, noticing the movement below. Kaito sat on the ground at Miku’s feet, and Kiyoteru rushed to plug the power and data cables to his head. Kaito immediately slumped forward, his head pressed against one of Miku’s thighs.

“And now for the interesting part,” Gakupo said, with a wry smile.

Kiyoteru had rightfully pointed out that Meiko and Leon might suspect something if they saw Kaito completely immobile for so long. Not to mention what could happen once the process was completed. So the bespectacled synthetic had offered to guide Meiko and Leon away under some pretext, while Gakupo and Luka moved Kaito’s inactive body out of the way.

Gakupo and Luka watched as Kiyoteru gesticulated wildly, pointing off to the right. To their relief, he didn’t seem to have much difficulty convincing the pair to follow him, and they quickly disappeared behind the ruins.

When it felt safe to do so, Gakupo and Luka dropped below and sneaked their way to Miku and Kaito.

“I hope she doesn’t try to interact with his mind too much;” Gakupo said, brushing Miku’s bangs out of the way. Her expression seemed pretty relaxed at the moment.

“At least we can wipe recent corrupt data more easily than information from previous cycles,” Luka replied, looking at the pair with impatience.

“How long did the program take to copy itself into Miku?” Gakupo asked.

“It felt like ages… but it was around 18 minutes,” Luka replied.

“I hope Kiyoteru keeps that in mind,” Gakupo said, somewhat distractedly. Something was nagging at him, now that the process was underway. Suddenly, the issue became clear.

“Oh, no…”

“What?” Luka said, alarmed.

“What if Miku sees in Kaito’s mind that he attacked her?!” Gakupo said, feeling rather stupid for not considering the idea before.

“Oh…” Luka covered her mouth. Obviously, she hadn’t considered that possibility herself.

“…I really didn’t think this through, did I?” Gakupo asked, his previous confidence rather deflated. “And they should have a fresh start, both of them!”

Luka rubbed his back, comfortingly. “We are doing the best we can. Let’s wait and see, ok? Maybe nothing bad will happen.” She took Gakupo’s hand and guided him back to the spot where they sat before, at the entrance of the tent.

They sat there waiting, hugging each other.

“How do you feel now?” Luka asked.

“I can work with it… but I hope I don’t need to get used to this sensation,” Gakupo replied, with the note of tiredness that seemed part of his voice now.

“There’s got to be something we can do!” Luka said in a vehement tone.

“Well, we should wait to see the results of the diagnosis, but… I do have an idea,” Gakupo whispered. “You aren’t going to like it.”

“If it gets you cured, I’ll do anything!”

“…We could seek Mitsuki,” Gakupo said hesitantly. As he expected, Luka’s expression darkened.

“Are you going to run back to her anytime you need something?” She growled.

“Luka…”

“This is her fault in the first place! Why give you incomplete documentation?” Luka wriggled herself free from Gakupo’s arms and stood. She began pacing angrily, refusing to look directly at him.

“She made a mistake. It doesn’t change the fact that she always treated us with kindness. Mitsuki deserves our respect,” Gakupo said gravely.

Luka’s shoulders slumped, as the anger gradually left her face.

“…were you happier back then?”

“Hm?”

“When it was just the two of you. Were you happier then?” Her tone now was sad and quiet. Gakupo stared at her for a second, as he gradually realized she was feeling jealous again. It was extremely odd to him, that Luka would persist on it.

“It was a nice existence, the best I could’ve hoped for as someone’s property. It certainly didn’t have the highs and lows my life has taken since I’ve met you,” Gakupo finally said. “But I wouldn’t trade that mildness for a second of having you in my arms, if that’s what you are trying to ask.”

He was rewarded with a small, fragile smile.

Somewhere behind Gakupo’s back, voices began to sing a distorted song in the distance. Gakupo and Luka startled.

“They're coming back!” Gakupo stood up with some difficulty and went to stand nervously next to Miku and Kaito. “Come on!”

“The odds are better for us now. We can take them,” Luka sounded confident, whether she actually felt it or not.

“No more fighting amongst ourselves,” Gakupo said, shaking his head. Luka sighed.

Two exasperating minutes passed.

“Download process completed,” Miku’s voice announced in a bouncy tone. “Please disconnect the connection to commence purge and restructure.”

“Yes!” Gakupo unplugged Kaito with a dramatic gesture.

Miku opened her eyes, with a perplexed expression.

“…They tried to kill him…” she mumbled. “Why?”

“Miku, are you ok?” Gakupo asked anxiously.

Miku nodded, as much as her situation allowed her to. Her eyes travelled downwards to look at Kaito’s calm face.

Gakupo exhaled in relief.

“The others are coming, ok? Can you go on with the plan?”

Miku nodded again, still looking at Kaito.

“Good. Luka, grab his legs. Ah, let me get the muffler or I might trip with it.”

“What do we do with him?” Luka asked, as the pair lifted Kaito’s body.

“Let’s get him inside that tent,” Gakupo jerked his head to point at a red tent with rather ominous splatters on one side. “We don’t have time for anything else.”

“Ok.”

The inside of the tent was wildly chaotic, with piles of woman’s clothing, shoes and random knick-knacks. Gakupo and Luka deposited Kaito on top of the mattress at the very back of the tent.

“Excuse me,” Gakupo said, and retrieved Miburi. After an instant of thought, he posed Kaito with his arms behind his head, to make it seem like he was relaxing.

Not that it would fool anyone for long, but it was still worth a shot.

Gakupo and Luka dived into the clothing mounds at each side of the tent’s entrance, just as the VE-01s entered the camp, followed by Kiyoteru.

Luka peeked out cautiously.

Leon and Meiko stood next to Miku, with Kiyoteru fidgeting close by. This time around, Miku’s distracted expression actually helped in the act.

“…Charge…” Leon spewed out a long stretch of noise, but that single word was the only understandable one. Once again, Kiyoteru rushed to fulfill the order.

Already uninterested, Meiko turned around, and thus failed to see Kiyoteru ease Leon’s body to the ground, as the process started. The female unit looked around, perhaps expecting Kaito to appear, but then shrugged and approached the red tent.

It figures, Luka thought, shrinking back.

Meiko stopped at the tent’s entrance, surprised at Kaito’s presence. Then she laughed throatily.

“Kaito… finally…” She purred, in what would’ve been a sensual tone if her voice hadn’t been so shrilly and distorted.

Luka watched in disbelief as Meiko unzipped her top and threw it aside with another laugh. From the other corner of the tent, Gakupo made a little sound of befuddlement.

Meiko immediately turned to look at him, eyes wide as saucers.

“…Hi!” Gakupo gave her a silly grin, before Luka tackled Meiko to the ground.

“Help me!” Luka screamed between Meiko’s horrifying shrieks, as they wrestled. A moment later, she managed to get on top of the other unit, and slammed the VE-01’s head on the ground violently.

Before Meiko could recover, Gakupo pinned her under his weight and Luka tied her wrists together.

“Let’s tie her up to that chair in the corner,” Luka said, her voice still intense.

Sooner said than done, given how Meiko struggled to get free. She even managed to kick them both a few times before they could accomplish the deed. Gakupo’s legs then buckled under him, forcing him to huddle on the ground.

“I think… physical activity…. makes it worse.” He squeezed his eyes shut.

Luka crouched and hugged him, while Meiko continued to shout and curse at them in her badly distorted voice. “We are almost done here, try to bear it.”

“…Yes,” Gakupo agreed in a barely audible tone.

Kiyoteru poked his head inside the tent, blinking at them and the half-naked unit bound to the chair. “…Is everything alright?”

“Once Leon or Kaito are done with the process, we’ll connect them to Meiko,” Luka said, ignoring his question. “There’s no point in risking Miku again.”

“Right…” Kiyoteru gave Meiko another look, and retreated.

“…Should we tell him about this?” Gakupo asked a moment later.

“No, no else needs to know yet,” Luka said, helping him into a sitting position.

“False disciples!” Meiko seethed.

“Who are we supposed to be disciples of, in the first place?” Luka asked in a mocking tone. “Benefactor?”

“World changer! God of Gears!” Meiko chanted.

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

“Liberator’s shadow covers the ground! Wicked beasts burn!”

“Where is this mysticism coming from, anyway? That’s for humans,” Luka said, shaking her head.

“Synthetic woman, elevated! No more touch of rotting hands… Synthetic woman, cleansed!” Meiko proclaimed, before launching in another wave of insults.

“Whatever you say,” Luka said, shrugging. “I’m tired of this nonsense. Should we wait outside?” She stood up, and offered Gakupo her hand.

“I’m kind of curious about it…” Gakupo tilted his head, examining Meiko’s rabid expression. “It’s the first time we have the opportunity to talk with them.”

“If you call that a conversation… It’s all going to be moot soon, in any case.” Luka tapped her chin in thought. “I’ll go see if Miku has any interesting books under her chair, I’ll be right back.” Luka marched out of the tent without waiting for a reply.

Gakupo glanced at her curiously, before returning his gaze to Meiko. The female unit stared back at him with a strange glow in her eyes. It reminded him of the look caged predators had in documentaries about old zoos.

Meiko seemed to be waiting for him to say or do something. Gakupo suddenly found that he had no idea of how to get her to open up. His eyes wandered around him, looking for a source of inspiration, and finally settled on Kaito.

“Ah… If you don’t mind me asking, were you and Kaito... acquainted before all of this?” Gakupo asked, feeling rather awkward. It wasn’t the smartest idea to ask her about their time in the labs, admittedly. But Gakupo had been wondering for a while if the scientists had actually worsened their condition with their prodding.

Meiko’s eyes focused on Kaito, with a look that clearly betrayed her attraction towards him. But she stayed stubbornly silent.

“What about the others, then?” Gakupo asked, after it became clear Meiko wasn’t going to answer his first question.

In response, Meiko actually smiled at him, a wide joyless rictus that seemed engineered to unsettle him.

“I just want to understand what you guys went through,” Gakupo explained fruitlessly.

Meiko laughed. “Merciful disciple…” she sang. She looked down at her naked torso and then leered at him, spreading her legs as far as her bound ankles could allow, causing her miniskirt to hitch up towards her waist.

“Synthetic woman free. Deal?” She asked in her same purring tone as before.

“I…” Gakupo blinked. “Hm, I still have trouble with gestures sometimes, so I have to ask. Are you offering me sexual intercourse? Why?”

From outside the tent, he heard the sound of several objects hitting the ground and an indignant huff. Luka entered in a whirlwind of anger, and without breaking her stride, kicked Meiko brutally in the chest. Meiko toppled backwards, chair and all, with a shriek. Luka then grabbed the closest piece of fabric available and balled it. Grabbing Meiko’s hair, she pushed it into her mouth until the female unit was gagged.

“Luka!” Gakupo stared at her in shock.

“What? She was trying to trick you,” Luka replied with a satisfied smirk.

“Still…” Gakupo trailed off. It was one thing to see Luka fight units that were trying to attack them, and another completely different to have her attack one that was already at their mercy.

“Am I disappointing you again, my prince?” Luka asked him, noticing his expression. She sat on his lap with a strange look on her face.

“Luka, please… let go of the anger.”

“I don’t know how!” Luka cried out, and buried her face in his shoulder, trembling. “Make me feel something else…”

Gakupo stayed silent. What was he supposed to do?

Luka pulled back a bit, to look him in the eye. “Are you scared of me?” She asked brokenly.

“I’m scared that I might not be able to help you,” Gakupo said with complete sincerity. “I love you, but is that good enough?”

“It gives me something to hold on to,” Luka muttered and leaned forward, touching Gakupo’s forehead with her own. He wrapped his arms around her, gently trapping her in place.

“Something to hold on to…” he repeated, and kissed her. For a few precious moments, everything else became meaningless.

“Mi-chan…?” A slightly metallic voice asked.

Kaito sat up, holding his head in his hands. He froze as he observed the scene before him, with the couple’s interlocked bodies, and Meiko, bounded and gagged, trying to escape her bonds.

“This… might look a bit weird,” Gakupo mused aloud.

“You think?” Luka giggled huskily and helped Gakupo to stand.

“Who are you? Where are the sales representatives?” Kaito asked, rising cautiously, as if he expected them to pounce on him at any second.

“Sales representatives?” Gakupo asked.

“They were going to take me to my new master, then…“ Kaito’s voice faltered. His eyes darted back and forth, as he touched his head once more. “I don’t have a master.”

“That’s correct, you don’t.”

Kaito looked downwards, stricken. “But I was finally going to go outside of the factory!”

“We are outside. And we don’t need masters to be here,” Luka said, crossing her arms.

“Rogues…” Kaito looked at them with awe. “If I don’t have a master…”

“You are a rogue unit too, now,” Gakupo finished for him.

Kaito smiled warmly, with a boyish glee that wasn’t there before. It made him feel much more youthful and naïve than what the leader of the VE-01s had been.

Meiko made a muffled sound, somewhat dampening the moment.

“Oh, yeah, she… er, she’s malfunctioning, we had to tie her up,” Gakupo explained sheepishly.

“Oh…” Kaito took a step closer to Meiko, observing her with curiosity. Gakupo briefly wondered if Kaito remembered her at all, before the blue-haired unit turned to them with a polite smile. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

“Actually, yes,” Luka started, before she seemed to realize that the cables were still outside. “I’ll be right back, explain the plan to him.” She told Gakupo before jogging off.

Kaito looked at him expectantly, like a schoolboy on his first day of classes.

“We freed you with the use of a specially modified program. If you connect with her, the program will automatically upload itself into her, and erase the damaged data in her memory banks, and her directives as well,” Gakupo recited once more.

“Direct data transference? But doesn’t that mean I have to fuse with her…? Wouldn’t that infect me as well?” Kaito sounded more than a bit repulsed by the idea.

“It’s a quick process. Just remember to interact with her as little as possible while your minds are connected, and you’ll be fine.” Just don’t try to dive into the deeper recesses of her inner self like an idiot, Gakupo didn’t add. He stepped forward and placed his hands on Kaito’s shoulders.

“Luka and I will make sure you are fine,” Gakupo reassured him.

“What is this?” Kaito asked, touching Gakupo’s arms with curiosity.

“In this case, it’s a sign of friendship.”

“…I like that,” Kaito said, smiling once more. He patted Gakupo’s arms, taking in the gesture with clear excitement.

“I’ll help.”

\---

Even after their reassurances, Rin, Len and Oliver were reluctant to follow Gakupo and Luka back to the camp, where the VE-01s and Miku waited.

“You are being naughty,” Yuki said, looking down at them from Kiyoteru’s arms.

“Hello? You lived with them, you know how they are!” Rin screeched.

“How they _were_.” Gakupo said patiently. “They are harmless now.”

“You promise?” Oliver asked.

“I promise,” Gakupo smiled. “Come on, we’ll spend the night here and go back for the yacht tomorrow.” By now, the afternoon sun was beginning to tinge everything in warm colors.

“…Okay.” After some hesitation, Oliver slipped his hand into Gakupo’s.

Kiyoteru lead the way, choosing an easier route than the one Gakupo and Luka had initially taken in the morning. They soon reached Benefactor’s huge shadow, and the shoddy camp.

Miku and Kaito were sitting on the lounge chair, trading stories with big smiles on their faces. Miku’s body was wrapped in a blanket, and she was fully unplugged from Benefactor’s cables. The only thing that gave away that something was amiss was the odd way that the blanket hung from one of her shoulders.

Meiko sat nearby on the ground, looking at them with a pensive expression, thankfully now fully dressed. Leon was nowhere to be seen.

“Hey, where’s Leon?” Gakupo asked.

“He said he wanted to be with Lola,” Meiko said, and pointed towards one of the tents.

“Ah…” Gakupo nodded, feeling rather guilty. Aside from remembering Lola, Leon had barely any memories left. And thanks to Gakupo, he was now deprived of the comfort of her presence.

Kiyoteru carefully deposited Yuki on the ground, and walked towards a stack of broken furniture and sticks.

“Should I build a bonfire? We could sit around it and discuss things,” he offered.

“Sounds good,” Gakupo replied. “Do you need any help?”

“Us! We can help!” Rin shouted and jumped forward, pulling Len and Oliver along with her.

Between all of them, they quickly built a big roaring fire at some distance from the tents. Luka declined to participate, and instead stood with her hands on Benefactor’s hull, likely communicating with the spaceship, trying to relay the recent developments to him.

Finally, she turned around and joined the group around the fire, sitting at Gakupo’s side.

Yuki was primly sitting on a cushion, while Kiyoteru kneeled next to her, fashioning a string of paper flowers out of the pages of a research paper. Rin and Len were busy making shadow figures on the cracked surface of the strip with their fingers, while Oliver watched with a timid smile on his face. Miku and Kaito were again immersed in some story, which involved Kaito making some really bizarre gestures Gakupo couldn’t identify. But apparently they were funny, since Miku was rocking back and forth with laughter. Meiko was back in the camp, trying to coax Leon into joining their meeting.

“Look at them all, Luka,” Gakupo whispered to her, as soon as she sat. “Look at us…We are a group of people!” His eyes glinted in the firelight, ecstatic.

“I don’t know if people is the right term for us…But I see what you mean,” Luka said, leaning on him. “I spoke with Benefactor,” she added after a pause.

“Yes?”

“I asked them if they could monitor any communications from Mars that could give us a clue of where Mitsuki is.”

“Thanks,” Gakupo said, running his fingers through her hair. After a moment, he continued. “I’ve been meaning to ask you… why do you refer to Benefactor as they?”

“I don’t know…sometimes it feels like the voice I hear is an amalgamation of many voices, like Benefactor is made up of thousands of pieces.” Luka paused. “It’s kind of silly, I guess.”

“Not at all. We practically know nothing about his…or their…functioning.” Gakupo replied. “Did you try asking him directly about his systems, though?”

“Yes, emphasis in trying. It was even harder than getting them to understand about human communications. At least I think they got what I was requesting. ”

“It’s going to be helpful to have Mitsuki around. Not just for me, given that the damaged female, Lola and Miku need repairs.”

“I guess so.”

Over Luka’s head, Gakupo saw Meiko practically dragging Leon towards the light of the bonfire.

“Ah… here we go.”

\---

All the synthetics present had agreed to enter sleep mode at night, to ration their energy. So the three golden-haired children were supposedly sleeping inside Miriam’s tent, though some muffled sounds made pillow-fighting a more likely activity. As for Miku, Leon gave her his tent, since he intended to stay up and guard the camp. Finally, Gakupo and Luka had taken over the tent that once housed the trio known collectively as Zola.

“You said that physical activity makes your energy problem worse. Would that include…?” Luka left of the sentence unsaid, but her hands readily demonstrated her meaning, once she climbed on top of him.

Gakupo gave out a little laugh. In the darkness of the tent, his eyes glowed crimson and full of happiness.

“We could give it a try. For science, as they say,” he said and caressed her body with slow, deliberate motions. His hands gradually moved downwards to rest on her hips, as Luka positioned herself.

“I’d say…this is a worthwhile expenditure of energy,” Gakupo said haltingly, as Luka began to sway over him.

_Small Ones._

Gakupo snorted. Above him, the twin blue lights made a circle as Luka rolled her eyes.

“Hello there, Ben,” Gakupo said with a touch of amusement.

“This is not a good moment, Benefactor,” Luka said, trying to keep the irritation from her voice.

_Physical interaction, desirable. Appendage insertion, pleasurable._

“Yes…”

_Small one Luka, reasoning requested._

By now Gakupo was shaking with barely contained laughter.

“We were constructed to find the act enjoyable, ok?” Luka snapped. “Sorry,” she added in a milder tone.

_Strange makers._

“You could say that,” Gakupo interjected. “We can explain the mechanics in more detail later if you really want to hear about it, but we’d like to continue, if you don’t mind.”

_Confirm. Confirm. Confirm._

“Thanks. Good night,” Gakupo finished, hoping against all odds that Benefactor would take a hint.

Whether they did or not, the presence retreated.

“I suddenly feel like we have four children under our charge,” Luka said bemusedly.

“If he doesn’t understand what humans are, I don’t see how he is going to process… this,” Gakupo said with an impish tone in his voice, as he engaged in more physical interaction.

Luka let out a moan. “I don’t… particularly care about that… mmm… right now.”

“Me neither,” Gakupo said, reinforcing the point as vigorously as he could under the circumstances.

There weren’t many coherent words after that.

 


	14. No Certainties

“I think it’s coming along nicely, don’t you think?” Gakupo asked, leaning back on the chair. “I’d say it even warrants telling me your name now…”

The damaged unit was examining herself in a mirror propped against the wall of the yacht’s maintenance room. She prodded the new skin of her belly, examining the curves of her torso with a critical eye. She turned, making her green ponytail whip around her head and her star earring dance.

“I don’t know, I expected something more beautiful,” she said with a teasing smile. “Look at this spot, I have a wrinkle!” She pointed to her side.

“I may have the knowledge stored inside of me, but that doesn’t make me a good artisan, I’m afraid,” Gakupo replied. “I did tell you that waiting for Mitsuki might be wiser.”

“Meh, screw that. Your pal has been analyzing Mars’ communications for a couple of weeks now, and nothing.”

“I know. For what it’s worth, I’m sorry I can’t do better, Sonika,” Gakupo said good-humoredly, stressing the last word.

Sonika stared at him, bemused.

“Kiyoteru told you, huh?” She finally asked sourly. Gakupo nodded. “That wet blanket…” she said, pouting. After a moment, Sonika shrugged and turned again to gaze at her reflection. “Whatever. You fixed my gyro control, that’s what I wanted the most. I’d like the rest fixed at some point, though...” She poked the unfinished side of the face for emphasis.

“I know. But Luka and I had to do some work on Miku first, before her limbs became completely unrecoverable.”

“I don’t know how she can handle it so well. It would drive me mad to be unable to move on my own, whenever I want to,” Sonika shook her head.

Gakupo grunted in agreement and got up slowly. “We’re done here for today, in any case. I have things to discuss with Ben and Luka. ”

Sonika picked up a long sleeveless jacket from the stretcher and put it on with an overly dramatic motion. “Lead the way, handsome.”

Once on deck, Gakupo leaned on the bulwark, observing the scene before him. The yacht was anchored next to the VE-01s’ boat, in a small inlet. Beyond the ever present ruins, Benefactor’s body rose, very dark against the blue sky. It couldn’t be seen from this angle, but _Escualo_ now rested by his side. 

“I don’t think I’ll ever get used to your pal there, I have to say,” Sonika said in passing as she began to descend the ramp towards the ground.

“He’s alright, once you talk to him.” Gakupo said, following her.

“But he never talks to us, only to Luka and you.”

“…You are right,” Gakupo realized. It was a curious thing, for certain. Perhaps they had been modified in some way to be able to connect to him directly?

Truth be told, the idea of adopting Benefactor’s superior technology for their use was a tempting one, if such a combination was indeed possible. Of course, the first obstacle to investigating such a possibility was the communications issue. Benefactor lacked a frame of reference for many things Luka and Gakupo took for granted, and vice versa. Though considering his origins, it was nothing short of amazing that they were capable of engaging in conversation with the spaceship at all.

Gakupo was still pondering the matter when he and Sonika rounded a corner and ran into Kaito and Miku. As usual, Kaito was carrying Miku in his arms, talking excitedly about something or another. Miku’s limbs were carefully wrapped in plastic to avoid further corrosion, since they were skinless at the moment.

“Hello!” They greeted Gakupo and Sonika cheerfully.

“Hello. Going off on an adventure?” Gakupo asked, smiling.

“You could say that,” Miku replied, and she and Kaito shared a complicit look, smiling.

“It’s pretty damn disturbing to see you so chummy after what happened before,” Sonika interjected, crossing her arms.

“Sonika!”Gakupo turned to look at the green-haired synthetic, horrified.

“…Oopsie?” Sonika said, making a show of covering her mouth for an instant. She didn’t look at all remorseful; in fact, her smile grew wider as she saw the good humor of the rest evaporate.

“What do you mean by that?” Kaito asked with a slight frown.

 “Oh, I wonder,” Sonika shrugged.

“What does she mean, ‘before’?” Miku turned to Gakupo, looking a bit scared.

“That’s… that’s not…” Gakupo stammered. Lying wasn’t a skill he had, probably by design. In this particular case, Luka and he had decided to simply avoid explaining most of the events between Benefactor’s arrival and the treatment of the VE-01s and Miku. So far, everyone else had followed their lead, though he often worried that one of the children could slip and say something unfortunate. But this had caught him completely off-guard. “Look…” he started with some effort, “We’ll talk about it tonight, ok? I need to talk with Sonika,” he gave the gynoid a look of frustration, “and Luka. Please wait until then. Please.”

Kaito and Miku didn’t look at all pleased, but after glancing again at each other, they nodded in agreement.

“Thanks,” Gakupo said and grabbed Sonika’s arm. He dragged her towards the camp, leaving the pad behind.

After they were at a reasonable distance, he looked over his shoulder at Sonika, who was staring at his hand with a curiously pleased expression. “What was that, exactly?” he asked.

 “I’m sick of seeing them act so sugary, like nothing is wrong!” Sonika growled.

“It’s in the past! Let them be what they are now!” Gakupo stopped and grabbed her shoulders.

Sonika shot him a look of contempt. “You all might want to bury it all, but I was there. I saw it happen,” she said stubbornly. “Besides, what’s to say it won’t happen again? That he won’t flip out the next time something doesn’t go his way?”

“His directives are gone.”

“So? He’s still a VE-01 and they’re more primitive than us. Maybe by their own nature VE-01s can’t handle being active too long before going bonkers. He’ll break again, I’m sure of it.” Sonika swatted Gakupo’s hands off and resumed walking.

“I don’t think so,” Gakupo pursued her.

“That’s because you are living in some sort of fairytale, instead of the reality the rest of us are stuck in,” Sonika replied. “You think you’re some sort of hero, carrying that sword around, and that everything will be fine because you _want_ it to be fine. What’s worse, you’re willing to put everyone at risk to maintain that illusion!”

“That’s not true!”

“Oh, really? May I remind you that Miku is alone with him at this very moment? Because you decided we shouldn’t say anything?”

“I’m just trying to do what’s best for everyone!” Gakupo said, louder than he intended. By then, Gakupo and Sonika were at the camp’s outskirts. Attracted by the noise, Meiko appeared from behind of one of the tents, looking at them with surprise.

“Yeah, and that’s the scary thing!” Sonika shot back and took off running.

Gakupo let her go, not that he had any choice in the matter, with his constant energy problems. The green-haired synthetic quickly disappeared behind a pile of debris.

“Is everything alright?” Meiko asked with curiosity.

“It’s… fine,” Gakupo said, wincing internally at his choice of words, given Sonika’s criticism. Meiko looked unconvinced, but after a moment she shrugged and went into the red tent, swaying her hips with her usual exuberance.

Gakupo gripped Miburi’s hilt, staring at the ground. _Was_ he putting everyone at risk? It was true that neither Luka nor he fully understood how VE minds worked, but so far the VE-01s were working perfectly with their fix.

Was he overlooking something? Some sign that they could relapse?

He crossed the camp, glancing at the red tent on the way. Meiko was sitting inside, mending her collection of torn and salt-encrusted clothes with a sewing kit she recently found in the rubble. The female unit didn’t look up from her sewing.

No one else seemed to be around. From the position of Luka’s beacon, she was inside Benefactor, helping out with his self-repair efforts. Gakupo considered asking Benefactor to take him inside his hull and join her, but quickly dismissed the idea. For once, he felt that he needed to sort out things by himself. He began to walk alongside Benefactor’s side, thinking.

Could Kaito and the others be blamed for things they didn’t even remember anymore? If VEs were the sum of their experiences, he doubted they could even be considered the same beings that used to roam the flooded city.  Moreover, Gakupo and Luka had altered their code, the raw matter that was shaped by the events in their lives. There were no certainties from here on.

“No certainties…” Gakupo mumbled to himself. He felt heavy and ungainly, like an old clock that needed winding.

Honestly, he had little more than theories. When it came to the basic things that made them what they were, he had nothing solid to help him make the right choice. What if Sonika was right? What if there was something inherently wrong in Kaito, Meiko and Leon? Something that had been corrected with later builds?

The questions kept circling through Gakupo’s mind, over and over again, more and more insistent. He couldn’t stop the loop of doubts and fear seizing him anymore, as he lumbered on with his eyes cast downwards. Lost in his thoughts, he missed the moment when _Escualo_ was revealed from behind Benefactor’s curved sides.

Sonika’s judgement of him was no less unpleasant. He knew that he was no hero; not a brave swashbuckler like in the movies, nor a noble warrior like Mitsuki’s ancestors. He was just a dumb machine, even though he sometimes felt he could learn to be more.

The sun was hitting hard. Gakupo look up, and found himself past Benefactor’s huge shadow, half-way down the strip towards the place where _Escualo_ rested, glittering.

Charge has a comforting effect on humanoid synthetics, the vessel’s AI once said. It wasn’t a bad idea, especially since his energy management function worked better when he was directly plugged to an energy source. He could use a half-hour of reprieve from the effects of the error in his programming.

But the ship was so far…Gakupo walked slower and slower, and the questions plaguing him danced haltingly inside his head.

So far…

The cement was rugged and boiling with the sun. If he had been a human, it would’ve scalded his skin.

His eyesight warped and blackened for a moment. Gakupo started to raise one hand to rub his eyes, but then it fell back to his side. His systems informed him that the limb wasn’t receiving energy. Half a second later, his legs reported the same information, and he stumbled and fell. Everything went black for a second time, this time permanently.

* * *

 

Inside of one Benefactor’s service tunnels, Luka sat cross-legged, in front of a honeycomb of circuits and wiring. Some of the cells needed replacing, and her humanoid digits were better for the job than the manipulators of Benefactor’s remaining service bots. One of them, a chubbier, cat-sized version of the spaceship, sat in the space between her legs, chirping encouragingly whenever she adjusted one of the cells correctly. Two others stood at her sides illuminating the scene with the row of lights that crowned their fronts.

From everything that she had seen while inside Benefactor, Luka suspected that his makers were of a size similar to hers, or perhaps slightly taller. It was hard to determine the purpose of many rooms, besides storage, but the lack of anything that resembled cooking spaces or organic waste treatment facilities suggested that they were bots of some kind themselves. It fit nicely with Benefactor’s ignorance regarding organic life.

Suddenly, a melody rang through the air, filling the tunnels with complex overlapping of sounds. The tiny differences of pitch between some notes would have been hard to detect by human ears, but they were perfectly recorded by Luka’s systems for analysis.

It was Benefactor’s true voice.

_Small one Luka._

“Yes?”

_Small one Gakupo, inactive._

“What?” Luka raised her voice in alarm. He had charged that very morning, there’s no way he had run out of energy already.

_Position detection, stationary. Time 377,88-a. Current status, analyzed. Consensus reached. Elevated heat levels. Irregular energy supply. Paralysis._

Luka quickly tossed her tools aside, and placed the bot on her lap next to one of his mates.

“Take me to where he is, please!”

_Confirm. Confirm. Confirm._

In a flash, Luka was outside, on the landing strip. As usual, whatever method Benefactor used to move them around caused a small eruption of error messages inside of her as her systems tried to process what had exactly happened to them. She ignored the warnings, as she scanned the area. _Escualo_ was to her left, Benefactor and the camp to the right. But where was Gakupo? She began to turn around, and her ankle hit something on the ground.

Full of dread, Luka looked downwards. Gakupo was lying face-down on the ground, motionless. His head was partially turned to the side, but his loose hair hid his face, except for an opaque eye, dark like red wine.

Holding back a scream, Luka bent down and turned him around, cradling him in her arms. He was warm, from lying out there in the sun for so long. “Gakupo! Can you hear me?!” Luka said, frantic. There was no reply. “You, you just need some charge. I’ll get you-I’ll get you somewhere to charge and you’ll be fine!” Facing away from Gakupo, she pulled his arms to place his weight on her back and began to drag him towards _Escualo_.

_Small one Luka._

“Not now!” Luka shouted, all her upper processes focused completely on Gakupo.

_Relocating._

Reality twisted again, and Luka stumbled, falling to her knees inside the prototype vessel’s miniscule maintenance and storage room. Gakupo’s weight pushed her forward, squashing her under his body.

_Nearest direct energy supply._

“….Thanks,” Luka murmured. She squirmed from under Gakupo and sat up.

“Hello. Is Gakupo having energy issues?” The ship’s AI suddenly piped up, mild as always.

“Yes, is your charging alcove working?” Luka asked, briefly wondering if the AI was capable of feeling worried about Gakupo.

“Fully Operational. Please insert Gakupo into the device,” the AI replied. Luka was already dragging Gakupo towards it.

With a violent tug, Luka pulled his shirt off and tossed it aside. She did the same for his headpiece. Then she carefully lifted Gakupo, paying no attention to the strain in her arms, and pushed him into the tight space. The alcove readily sensed his presence and lit up. Its metallic restrains circled his limbs and waist, allowing Luka to take a step back. With a hiss, the alcove plugged its thin cables into Gakupo’s back and head.

Almost immediately, his eyes flickered on and off several times, before the glow became permanent. Gakupo looked around, with a dazed expression. Finally, his eyes fixed on Luka.

“…Did I shut off?” he asked slowly.

Luka nodded wordlessly, feeling relief wash over her. She leaned forward and rested her forehead on his shoulder. “Don’t scare me like that, dummy,” she whispered.

“I’m sorry…” Gakupo replied, inclining his head as much as the alcove allowed.

“It’s getting worse, isn’t it?” Luka asked, barely giving the sentence an interrogative tone. She already knew the answer.

“If we don’t find Mitsuki soon, I’ll-” Gakupo started. 

“Don’t say it!” Luka straightened up and shook her head.

“Luka, perhaps it’s better if we prepare for it,” Gakupo said, calmly. He gave Luka a tiny smile. “I had a good life. I learnt many things, I got to spend my days with you… Even if we can’t fix this, I have little reason to complain.”

Luka turned away from him, pursing her lips.

“You are not going to be alone. The others are going to need you. And you are going to need them,” Gakupo continued.

“I need you,” Luka replied, her voice low and opaque.

“And I’ll resist this for as long as I can. But…there are no certainties,” Gakupo said softly.

Luka whipped her head around violently. “Do you have any idea how I felt up there without you?!” She pointed upwards. “And then, at least I knew you were living happily on Earth!” She growled, her eyes wild and unfocused.

“Luka…” Gakupo trailed off, unsure on what to say.

“If I may…” the AI suddenly interjected. Both synthetics turned instinctively to look at the camera in the corner of the room. “What methods are you using to search for Miss Torii?”

“Ben is monitoring the transmissions sent from Mars to Earth or the space stations, searching for any references to her, or video messages with her image,” Gakupo replied.

“Is the spaceship capable of fuzzy search?” the AI asked.

Luka and Gakupo looked at each other. “I’m not certain…” Luka said slowly. Gakupo tilted his head slightly.

“Humans change their physical configuration much more easily than humanoid synthetics or fixed-housing data entities like myself,” the AI said, almost casually.

“…And Ben has trouble understanding how organics work, so he could overlook visual feed of Mitsuki if it doesn’t perfectly match her description!” Gakupo concluded.

“Perhaps you should review the archived visual transmissions personally, then,” the AI suggested.

“You’re right!” Luka latched at the idea, brimming with hope. It was certainly better than just waiting around for Gakupo to slip away from her.

“Ben, are you listening?” Gakupo asked.

_Small one Gakupo._

“Are you familiar with the term fuzzy search?”

_Undefined entry._

“How closely are you following the criteria I gave you for the analysis of the visual feeds from Mars?” Luka intervened. 

_Full-match preferred. 80-99%, second stack storage, purging on 10th cycle._

“That doesn’t leave a lot of room for error,” Gakupo said softly. “If you don’t mind, do you think we could review your second stack of partial matches?”

_Confirm. Confirm. Confirm._

In response, the alcove dinged and released Gakupo. Luka rushed to steady him, circling his chest with her arms. A moment later, they were no longer there.

* * *

 

Gakupo and Luka looked around them curiously. The room they were in looked nothing like _Escualo_ ’s tiny cockpit, or _Leviathan_ ’s bridge. It was somewhat like being inside a giant paper lantern. Two of the curving walls were lined with rows and rows of softly illuminated rectangles, possibly drawers of some kind, although they didn’t have any kind of locks or knobs. The other two walls were dark and featureless, aside from a discrete door. In the middle of the room, there were three circular platforms, matched by three circular protuberances in the ceiling. The middle platform was lit, and the air between it and the ceiling shimmered strangely.

_Small one Gakupo, rest._

One of the drawers at ground level slid forward, revealing a narrow space lined with a soft-looking dark substance. It resembled, more than anything, a human coffin. After Luka helped him get inside of it, the material ballooned and adjusted to Gakupo’s shape, propping up his head and upper body into a semi-reclining position.

“Is this how your crew was…housed?” Luka asked.

_Memory degraded. Response unavailable._

“But the other spaces are empty, right?” She insisted, looking up to the rows rising all the way to the ceiling.

_Unoccupied._

“This is energizing me somehow,” Gakupo commented. He looked at his feet and moved them in rhythmical manner, almost like a dance. “It feels good,” he added, closing his eyes like a satisfied cat.

Luka tilted her head. Benefactor clearly had some way of interfacing with their systems without any actual physical contact, but direct energy transference surprised her more than simply controlling their bodies, as he had done before. Still, she had more important things to think about right now. She approached the lit platform.

“So, I get on this, right? What do I-woah?!” Luka let out a surprised gasp.

“Luka, are you ok?!” Gakupo opened his eyes, startled. He blinked as he saw Luka hovering half-way between the ceiling and floor of the chamber.

“It’s- it’s alright,” Luka hastily replied. There was something nagging at the corners of her vision, though. She darted her eyes quickly from one place to another, trying to focus on the fleeting phantoms.  “I see something. Maybe if I close my eyes…” she trailed off.

Luka saw the ground and ocean around her and the tiny and important creatures roaming the island. Farther away stood the broken buildings of the deserted city. Their yacht was speeding away from her, and she had a brief flash of green hair and a snide smile. But her eyeless sight strayed away, and focused beyond the borders of her small world.

 _They_ were watching and waiting. Their toys of war circled the zone completely, patrolling back and forth. Luka saw the glint of the muzzles of too many guns. It seemed as if all the defense bots in Earth were stationed outside of the shield. Flying drones traced patterns in the sky, following its curvature.

“Can you access his archives?” Gakupo asked, pulling her back into her own small self.

“Ah, um, not yet,” Luka said out loud. “Mars archives, second stack from 0,” she whispered tentatively. In response, a second layer of barely discernible images was superposed over the external views. As soon as she focused on them, the feed solidified and the sound flooded her ears.

“-care how much they are paying you, Earth is not safe! Who knows when those monsters are going to come out from their bubble and finish what they started!” An Asian man spoke vehemently to the camera, his face almost filling the screen. He was clearly restraining himself from shouting.

“Monsters, huh?” Luka mused, too low for Gakupo to listen. That a human of all things would say that about them was particularly hilarious.

As the recording progressed, it became clear that it was intended for an employee of a para-military company guarding a complex near the shield, and thus completely irrelevant. Luka moved on.

She quickly searched through the files, occasionally making comments to Gakupo. About an hour later, she found a particularly interesting investigative report.

“They’ve cordoned off the factory,” Luka informed Gakupo.

“Cordoned off?” He repeated, surprised.

“The authorities sealed the facilities, stopped all production on humanoid synthetics and deactivated all the units still inside,” Luka explained further.

“Hm...” Gakupo pondered. “That reminds me of something I wanted to discuss with you and Ben... but continue, I’ll tell you later.”

“There’s nothing else to say,” Luka shrugged. “Not about the factory, at least. I’ll keep looking for Mitsuki.”

The video files kept piling one after the other. Luka sped them as much as possible, trying to keep herself from absorbing useless information. Still, a couple more hours passed before she finally saw something of interest. She slowed the file to normal speed.

“-re shipments before it’s done, or at least that what the Doc says. Right, Doc?” A thuggish man spoke to the camera, and then turned to look over his shoulder. A few meters behind him, almost out of frame, Mitsuki stood flanked by a couple of female synthetics, who were grabbing her by the forearms. Mitsuki nodded grimly, looking like she was holding back tears.

“I found her!” Luka shouted. Gakupo opened his eyes, instantly becoming alert.

Luka froze the image and studied Mitsuki. It didn’t surprise her that Benefactor had failed to identify her. Her hair was short, cut in a pixie cut, and she was looking gaunt and weary. She also sported a black eye, a bloodied lip and other bruises. Either her employers were not very nice or she was prisoner to some other unsavory individual.

“Is she alright? Where is she?” Gakupo asked anxiously.

“The origin of this feed… hm, coordinates 345-77.00-12. That’s an undocumented base.” Luka pointedly avoided answering the first question. Thankfully, her innate impulse to answer with the truth was satisfied by answering the second one. “I’m afraid she might be involved in something illegal.”

“She said her new employers would protect her from the authorities,” Gakupo said slowly. “It makes sense that she would be at a secret base. I just hope they are treating her right.”

Luka again avoided the issue, instead focusing on the obvious problem at hand. “Ok, we know where she is, presumably. How do we get to her?”

“ _Escualo_ is faster than any other ship out there,” Gakupo said.

“But it can’t project shields like Benefactor. I wonder….” Luka trailed off. “Benefactor, please get me down.” As requested, she softly descended until her feet touched the platform once more. In a couple of strides, she approached Gakupo and sat on his lap.  “Benefactor, how are your repairs going?”

_88.46% complete._

“Gakupo needs this organic unit quickly. Can you take us to Mars when you are done?” she asked.

_Mission objective, organic matter extraction. Confirm, confirm, confirm. Defensive, navigational, offensive capabilities required. Acceptable threshold estimation required. Analyzing. Departure time, 4.666666666666667 +E001 standard cycles. Third-planet equivalency, 7 +E033 cycles._

“A week, then?” Gakupo interpreted. “Not bad. I might need to stay close to a charging source until then, though.”

“Yes, and no wandering around on your own… please,” Luka added, hugging him. That sparked a realization in her. “Wait, you were with Sonika… How come you ended up alone out there?”

“Erm…” Gakupo made a face. “We had something of a fight, I guess. No, no, calm down Luka!“ He grabbed her quickly by the shoulders. “She didn’t do anything… to me.” He sighted.

“Then, what happened?” Luka asked, her expression still dark.

“She purposefully let slip to Kaito and Miku that something happened between them before the memory wipe. She doesn’t trust Kaito all that much, I’m afraid.”

“And you do,” Luka said, inexpressive.

“I don’t know how to feel anymore. That’s what I was thinking about when my systems crashed. I kept going in circles, trying to decide what to do-“

“Don’t,” Luka cut abruptly.

“Huh?”

“If that made you malfunction, don’t think about it,” Luka said simply.

“It’s not that simple! For starters, I promised Kaito and Miku that we’d talk about it tonight,” Gakupo frowned.

“And do what? Blurt out the truth?” 

“Perhaps… perhaps it was wrong for us to decide for them how their story is going to play out,” Gakupo said, pensive.

“I don’t care if it’s wrong or not, whatever that means for synthetics like us,” Luka replied, a stubborn expression in her face. “I care that you don’t overdo it.”

Gakupo smiled. “We will need to figure things out, at some point. What do we value, who we are… especially if we are going to work as a society. There’s no need to solve everything right away, I suppose. But we need to decide what to do about them before tonight.”

He hugged her again, silently analyzing the strange relief he felt. Many things had happened so far, and yet he still had Luka by his side, faithful as always. They could rely on each other, even now, when they were facing things never meant to be tackled by synthetics.

Let Sonika laugh at him as much as she wanted…Gakupo still felt things could turn up fine.


	15. King & Queen

Like every night, everyone gathered around a bonfire as the sun began to set. The stars were already above by the time Luka and Gakupo appeared next to the gathering, but there was still another synthetic missing: Sonika. A warning flag immediately rose in Luka’s mind at her absence. She thought back at the images she had seen through Benefactor’s senses. She assumed Sonika had taken off in the yacht to relax after her discussion with Gakupo, but she should’ve been back by now.

Privately, Luka didn’t particularly care if Sonika left their group for good. As far as she was concerned, the wannabe starlet brought little to the table with her presence. Gakupo, being who he was, tolerated her attitude quite well, but Luka found her simply infuriating.

“Can we talk now?” Kaito said, breaking her chain of thought. The blue-haired synthetic stood up, an uncommonly grave expression on his face. Miku, sitting nearby, looked at Gakupo and Luka with nervous anticipation, but said nothing.

“Hmm …sure.” Gakupo replied, clearly uncomfortable. “We’d like to speak to Kaito alone first- err… if you don’t mind, Miku.”

“O-okay…” Miku stammered.

“What’s going on?” Rin asked. Everyone else shared her curiosity, if the looks on their faces was any indication.

“Don’t worry about it, we just need to sort something out.” Gakupo said in a gentle tone. Rin pouted.

“Tomorrow, we have a proposal for all of you. Everyone, please stay in the camp in the morning.” Luka added sternly, ruining the effect somewhat. ”Kaito, come on.” Luka circled Gakupo’s waist with one arm and helped him walk to their tent. Kaito gave the rest of the synthetics a tense look and followed the pair.

“I really don’t feel like having this conversation.” Gakupo whispered into Luka’s ear as they entered. Luka gave a barely noticeable nod of agreement.

The tent’s fabric filtered the glow of the bonfire, leaving the inside in relative darkness. Not that there was much to see, just a ratty mat and some rags that Gakupo and Luka used as a bed, Luka’s toolbox and a flashlight.  After laying Gakupo on the mat, Luka turned on the flashlight and placed it on the ground. She pulled something out of her toolbox and sat next to Gakupo. Kaito kneeled on the floor before them.

“Did I do something to upset Sonika? I don’t have much experience interacting with other units…” Kaito asked, downcast.

“Hmm…I guess the answer is yes, but…” Gakupo trailed off, tugging at his hair. “Actually, there’s something I need to confirm first. When you woke up after the fix, you thought you were still at the factory. Is that truly the last thing you remember?”

Kaito looked at the ground, with a look of concentration. After a moment, he looked at them again. “There are some packets of data in my banks that are inaccessible. There´s something wonky about their addresses. It’s almost as if they are encrypted, but I don’t recognize the pattern. But all the memories I can access are from the factory.” he explained.

“I see. Ah, just to satisfy my curiosity…was Mi-chan an employee of the factory? You mentioned this person when- “ Gakupo started, but abruptly fell silent when he saw the look in Kaito’s face. Next to him, Luka tensed.

“Mi-chan…” Kaito repeated, his eyes burning intensely. “That’s it, that’s the key!” he exclaimed transfixed. “Mi-chan! She used to pin a flower on my lapel when I passed in front of her store.” He smiled briefly, affection clearly showing in his face. “She would laugh whenever I asked what the flower meant…”  He rubbed his face. “But then…I lived outside? Where was I going?  I can’t remember! ” his voice gradually became louder, sounding more and more troubled. 

“You loved a human?” Luka asked in her opaque voice. She made a conscious effort not to express her distaste for the idea, given Kaito’s distraught state. Both Kaito and Gakupo stared at her in surprise.

“Where did you get that idea?” Gakupo asked. Luka rolled her eyes in response.

“If his systems held on so stubbornly to the memories of this person, it had to be important to him,” Luka replied with a shrug.

After uploading the program into Miku, Gakupo was missing most of his memories of the last cycle, but he still remembered some of what he had seen inside of her mind. From what he had told Luka, Kaito was experiencing some sort of emotional turmoil before he snapped. Kaito himself might’ve struggled recognizing what his feelings were, but they were plainly obvious to her. It also explained nicely why the humans would want to lynch him. For them, companion synthetics like him were to be used and discarded like toys, and weren’t proper partners for an actual romantic relationship. Luka vaguely wondered if they had lynched Mi-chan as well.

Kaito was again staring at the ground, shaking slightly. Gakupo touched his upper arm tentatively, but the other unit failed to react in any way. The pair observed him in silence, waiting. After a long pause, Kaito raised his head, with a fragile smile on his face.

“I _loved_. I actually loved someone…” He pressed a hand to his chest, as if he was holding something warm close to his core. “Do you think I can ever meet her again?”

“I’m not sure if that’s wise,” Gakupo replied cautiously, but he clearly found it to be a bad idea. Luka silently agreed: not only it meant going outside of Benefactor’s shield, but it could also place the woman in danger, which was probably not what Kaito wanted.

“The humans out there think we are monsters, especially us three,” Luka pointed out. Kaito looked at her with a small frown.

“See, we told all of you that Benefactor and the humans got into a scuffle, and that’s why Benefactor raised a shield around the area,” Gakupo started quietly.

“And?”

“It was more serious than we let on. Humans died.” Kaito widened his eyes at this, but made no comment. “And since Benefactor was using us to try to interact with the world, they now blame Luka and I for what happened,” Gakupo continued.

“But, what about me? Why would anyone think I’m a monster? I had no part on any of that,” Kaito argued.

“Incorrect. But Kaito, you were something of an infamous rumor even before Benefactor’s arrival. Those leftover memories of Mi-chan are at least five years old,” Luka interjected.

“What?!”

“I don’t know all the details, but there was an incident,” Gakupo elaborated. He was obviously regretting the decision to come clean with Kaito, but it was too late to change his mind. “You…injured a lot of people. The factory took you back for study, but they never fixed you, they just stored you away from the public. So you were still acting erratically when Benefactor summoned the third-generation synthetics to his landing site.”

Kaito just stared at him, speechless. But Luka could see he was beginning to suspect what Sonika’s words meant, from the fear in his eyes. Like Gakupo, she couldn’t help but feel that truth had been the wrong choice.

“Did I hurt anyone else?” Kaito asked slowly. He pulled nervously at the cuffs of the oversized lab coat he insisted on wearing.

Gakupo nodded. Kaito leaned forward dejectedly, like a snow crystal melting in the sun. Gakupo gently placed a hand on Kaito’s shoulder, and the cerulean synthetic grabbed his arm, as if he needed to hold on to something solid.

“Was it me who hurt _her_?” Kaito whispered. He angled his head briefly to a side, pointing to the group outside by the bonfire.

“You were unwell when it happened,” Gakupo replied in an equally low tone. “So don’t-“

Kaito let out an intelligible cry, his voice breaking into unnatural shards of noise. He covered his face with his hands, trembling. Luka subtly readied the sharp tool she had been hiding by her side, in case she needed to protect Gakupo and herself.

“No, don’t do that, please!” Gakupo clumsily tried to calm Kaito, patting his arched back. He was obviously at a loss regarding the proper gestures for the situation. “We fixed you! We did, right?” The last part was directed to Luka, who gave him an uncertain look. She couldn’t avoid voicing her opinion if Gakupo asked her so directly.

“We aren’t completely sure you won’t malfunction again, but we did our best.” she replied.

Kaito’s hands dropped to the floor. He looked at them strangely, like he had never seen his own fingers before. “ _Shut me off,_ ” he mumbled.

“Huh?” Gakupo said, tilting his head.

 “If you can’t guarantee I won’t hurt Miku or anyone else, _shut me off_ ,” Kaito said more firmly.

“…No. We can’t do something like that.” Gakupo said, shaking his head vehemently.

Kaito looked at Luka, who stared back at him with a guarded expression. “Some, like Sonika or Miku, might be more at ease if we deactivate you,” Luka said. “But in the end, we simply don’t know how you are going to evolve over time. Besides, we don’t have any authority over you, so it’s improper for us to make that call. The only one that might give you an informed assessment is Mitsuki. Come with us to Mars to retrieve her, and let her examine you. Then you can decide for yourself what to do.”

While Kaito pondered her words, Luka took Gakupo’s hand into her own. She disliked seeing him so worried, given that he was struggling with problems of his own. He squeezed her hand, giving her a pained smile.

“I’ll go,” Kaito finally decided, his boyish face full of determination.

Gakupo nodded. “I imagine that you have a lot of questions now, but Miku has been waiting for a while. Maybe we can continue this conversation tomorrow?”

“Okay,” Kaito agreed.

Luka stood up. “I’ll go get her. You should head back to your tent,” she told Kaito.

“Good night, Kaito. I know this is a lot to take in, but don’t worry too much, please. Mitsuki will know what to do,” Gakupo said.

Kaito nodded wordlessly and followed Luka outside.

The group by the bonfire seemed engaged in a spirited discussion on what was coming tomorrow. Everyone but Miku, that is. She was staring at nothing, chewing on her lip. When she noticed Luka and Kaito, she smiled timidly. Kaito grimaced and awkwardly avoided her gaze. After a moment of indecision, he quickly retreated into the gloom of the camp, without even a goodbye.

Miku stared at his vanishing figure with surprise. A few meters away, Meiko observed them both, not bothering to hide her interest.

“Ready to talk?” Luka asked, approaching Miku.

“Yes, sure,” Miku replied, still a bit puzzled. Luka picked her off the ground and carried her to the tent. Thankfully, Miku was much smaller and lighter than Gakupo, so she had less trouble with the maneuver.   

Out of the corner of her eye, Luka saw Meiko get up and walk towards Kaito’s tent, nervously running her hands through her hair.  

“Kaito looked unhappy…this is going to be bad, isn’t it?” Miku exclaimed once Luka placed her down next to Gakupo.

“Hm…We could always let the past rest.” Gakupo mumbled, without too much conviction. Luka shook her head as she sat to his right.

“No. I want to know what Sonika was talking about,” Miku replied. She was clearly trying to look brave and confident, which was somewhat undermined by her delicate appearance.

Gakupo rubbed his chin. “I wonder if she really believes that was a good move… I don’t want to think ill of anyone, but that seemed less about being concerned about the safety of the group, and more about revenge. I’d like to think that concepts like justice and revenge belong just to humans, but it really seems that way.”

Now that was a surprise. Luka didn’t expect Gakupo to conclude something like that on his own, that was for certain. His good disposition towards everyone seemed so ingrained that she was unsure he was capable of understanding certain attitudes. But knowing and accepting Sonika as she was and being blind to such a reality were two different things.

“Revenge? Revenge for what?” Miku asked, confused.

“We’ll come to that… But now I wonder. What do you think words like justice and revenge mean?” Gakupo said, dodging her question with one of his own.

“I-I don’t know… I’ve never had to think about things like these before.” Miku stammered. “Let’s see- Justice is fair punishment for bad behavior, right? Like when we do something against the directives. And revenge is punishing someone, not because it’s fair, but because they hurt you.” The girl synthetic said hesitantly, looking like a student caught distracted in class.

“I think the concepts are much more complicated than that, but let’s start with those definitions. From what you said, I assume you think you operated under justice before, when we had our directives. What about now?”

“I…I…” Miku looked at him with widened eyes. “I still have behaviors given to me by humans... There just isn’t punishment anymore, when I think about things they wouldn’t like.” 

“So you could do things considered evil by humans if you wanted.” Finally, Luka was beginning to see where Gakupo was going with his questions.

“If I wanted. But I don’t want to do evil things.” Miku stated firmly.

“Because you know they are evil, right?”

“Yes!” She nodded.

“What if the parts of your mind dedicated to realizing what is considered good and evil by human standards were malfunctioning? And you did something really bad?” Gakupo asked carefully. “Should you be punished?”

“I don’t know…”

“Do you want to know what _I_ think?” Gakupo waited for another nod and continued. “The directives were more than explicit rules derived from the laws governing synthetics. They made us think that we were all worthless, and undeserving of respect. But they were right in stating that we aren’t humans, and that we operate in a different way. I think we need to discover by ourselves what is fair _to us_. For instance, I don’t think it’s fair to punish a malfunctioning unit, and I don’t think we need revenge.”

“Why are you telling me all of this?” Miku asked, looking more than a little overwhelmed.

“Kaito and the others were malfunctioning, even before Benefactor landed,” Gakupo started. “They were doing harmful things to others, both human and synthetic. Now that we fixed them, there’s no way to know, but I think they didn’t know they were doing bad things.”

“Bad things…” Miku repeated. A sudden realization twisted her features in shock, and she looked downwards at her mangled body. Luka and Gakupo looked at each other somberly. The pair waited for Miku to say something, but she remained silent, her eyes hidden by her teal bangs.

“He did this to me, didn’t he?” She finally said, in a burnt tone very different from her usually sugary voice. Gakupo lightly touched her head, his fingers brushing against one of the many ribbons weaved into her hair. Given Miku’s size, he obviously thought patting her in the head like the other kids was an acceptable gesture.

“You are closer to Kaito than any of the others, from what I can see.” Miku didn’t react to Gakupo’s words in any perceptible way. “It’s grown stronger over these couple of weeks, but I believe there was mutual interest from the start. Am I right?” He waited, but the synthetic girl didn’t reply.

“That interest was there before, when Kaito was malfunctioning. You are even wearing his gifts now-” Luka intervened when it became apparent that Miku wasn’t going to say anything.

“ _He broke me_ ,” Miku cut through her phrase, hard as diamond.

“That he did,” Gakupo conceded, clearly disappointed at the turn the conversation was taking. “I don’t think he realized it was wrong to force you into accepting his attentions, though.”

“Attentions?” Miku asked. Her head turned towards him with unnatural smoothness, accentuating her doll-like appearance.

“We are made to serve as loving companions to our masters.” Gakupo said in a low tone. Luka scowled internally. That was a pleasant way to describe what they were expected to do, that’s for sure. Thankfully, after her botched repair job she had never felt any compulsion to love Smith in any way, and he wanted nothing from her, beyond doing domestic chores.

“He broke my limbs because I wouldn’t love him?!” Miku shrieked. Outside of the tent, Luka could hear muted exclamations of surprise.

“That’s not quite…I don’t understand his reasoning, but something made him hurt you, something that is not there anymore,” Gakupo replied.

“The two of you, you left me in the dark all these time. You said you were my friends!” Miku said, a disbelieving tone in her voice. “And all that talk of justice… You wanted me to say he shouldn’t be punished?!”

“We are your friends, if you still want us to be,” Luka said calmly. “Perhaps staying silent was a mistake, but we are as inexperienced as you are in this sort of thing.”

 “What happened to you was horrible; we aren’t trying to diminish that.” Gakupo stated. “But the Kaito that did that to you is not here anymore. _Our_ Kaito asked us to deactivate him if there was a chance he could hurt you. Do you still want him punished? I’m sure he’ll submit to whatever fate you decide for him.”

Miku looked at him blankly.

“It is hard, isn’t it?” Gakupo replied quietly. He placed a hand on top of Miku’s head again, making the trinkets in her hair jingle softly. “It’s going to be hard, being more than over-engineered puppets.” Luka arched one eyebrow, recognizing Smith’s words, from what seemed like a lifetime ago. “We are going to face many difficult questions from here on, and many hardships. You had to experience it right from the start, though.”

“I can’t face him like nothing is wrong,” Miku finally said and leaned slightly towards Gakupo, in what probably amounted to an unvoiced plea for comfort. After some hesitation and a glance at Luka, Gakupo awkwardly surrounded her with one arm. Miku pressed her face against his shirt, almost losing balance due to her useless hands.

“We don’t expect you to,” Gakupo said tenderly.

“I’m scared…”

Gakupo caressed her hair wordlessly, glancing at Luka again. She gave him a slight shrug. There wasn’t any good answer they could give Miku, from what she could see.

“We are leaving Earth with Benefactor in a week. We thought we would bring you with us to Mitsuki, so she can finish your repairs. But Kaito is coming too, and probably the others will join us as well. Perhaps you’d like to return to our makers instead?” Luka offered. Miku shifted slightly her position to look at her, surprised.

“Out of all of us, you are the only one that has a small chance to be accepted back into the human world,” Gakupo pointed out. “You are something of a symbol for technology enthusiasts. But I don’t know what they’ll do to you once they realize your directives are gone. And the sentiment towards synthetics is worse now, since they see us as allies to Benefactor. They might just deactivate you, or worse.”

“We will do our best to protect you, if you come with us,” Luka promised the smaller synthetic.

“I don’t know what to do.” Miku scrunched her face.

“You have time to decide,” Gakupo said soothingly.

Miku lowered her eyes, looking as if she was debating whether to voice her thoughts. Finally, she smiled a little, rather unconvincingly. “I’d like to go back to my tent now, please.”

* * *

 

As requested, everyone gathered around the cinders of the previous night bonfire. Swift plumes, the color of chalk, raced across the sky. Gakupo’s hair billowed in the wind, free from his usual ponytail.  Truth be told, his fingers had decided to stop working in the middle of his morning routine, but he had kept quiet about it. Luka had enough to worry about as it was. He would probably recover his functions once he connected to a power source.

He studied the group sitting in a loose circle. Luka was sitting to his right, and their kids to his left. Miku was next to Luka, looking pensive. All her usual ornaments were missing, replaced by two elastic bands that held her twin tails in place. Next to her, Kiyoteru and Yuki were looking back at Gakupo with similar expressions of curiosity. Across the circle, Leon stared glumly at the blackened and warped cement before him. Kaito and Meiko were at Len’s left, completing the group. Sonika wasn’t back yet, and Gakupo suspected she didn’t intend to return at all. 

“Alright, shall we begin?” Gakupo started, with more cheerfulness than he actually felt at the moment. Several of the synthetics nodded.

“The situation is as follows. In a week, Benefactor is taking off towards Mars. We are going to seek out Gakupo’s former master, Mitsuki Torii,” Luka took over smoothly. “She is a gifted scientist, with vast experience on synthetics, and could be a great asset for our continued existence.”

Gakupo smiled bemusedly. Luka probably thought she was being very complimentary, but her disdain for humans still shone through her impersonal description. He looked at the others, wondering if they noticed it.

“Most of you were already aware we wanted to find her. But here’s the important part: After we retrieve her, we don’t plan to come back to Earth. _We are leaving the Solar System altogether_.” she continued.

“What?!” Kiyoteru exclaimed.

“And go where?” Rin enquired, looking skeptical. Len and Oliver seemed to share her sentiment.

Most of the other just stared at Luka, surprised, except Meiko, who seemed too busy gazing at Kaito with adoration to notice the world around her.

 “These worlds were given to humanity, long before we came into being. We don’t belong here, and we aren’t wanted here. So let’s find a place of our own,” Luka said, with an air of satisfaction. She was likely already imagining a new world, all for them.

“We want each of you to decide if you want to join us, or if you prefer trying your chances with the humans,” Gakupo explained. “On one hand, we might spend centuries aboard Benefactor without finding a suitable planet. On the other, from what we gleamed from the transmissions Benefactor picked up, the humans are not likely to welcome any humanoid synthetic with open arms. We might be banned altogether by now.”

“I’m going!” Meiko cried out immediately. So she was paying attention, after all. “I’m never going back to the Crimson Cat!” She exclaimed defiantly.

 “What’s that?” Yuki asked innocently.

“A bad place full of gross men,” Meiko answered. Kiyoteru looked at her warningly, but Yuki seemed placated by the answer.

Gakupo didn’t know what the Crimson Cat was, but evidently it had to do with Meiko’s breakdown in some way. It was unfortunate that the process hadn’t completely wiped the memories regarding it.

“We’re going too!” Rin and Len piped up. Oliver nodded shyly.

“I’m glad to hear it. It would feel wrong to go without you three,” Gakupo said, smiling.

“Kaito is going for his own reasons,” Luka announced after a pause. “What about you two?” She directed the question at Kiyoteru and Yuki.

“I’ll go with whatever option makes Yuki happier,” Kiyoteru answered quickly.

“Yuki is happy when Teru is happy,” Yuki said. Kiyoteru turned to her with widened eyes. “And Mommy and Daddy make Teru sad.” She closed her eyes, seemingly satisfied with her answer.

“But the masters loved you dearly… Aren’t you going to miss them?” Kiyoteru asked.

“Mommy and Daddy don’t love Yuki. Mommy and Daddy love Yukiko,” the synthetic child said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Perhaps it was for her, but it seemed to completely floor her bespectacled companion. From what Gakupo knew, Yukiko was the name of the girl the small synthetic had been fashioned after. Perhaps Yuki was shrewder than her appearance suggested, or perhaps the factory instructors had plainly told her that she was nothing more than an imperfect replacement. “Teru wants to see the stars up close, right?” she asked.

“…I do.” His armor of formality seemed cracked after Yuki’s words.

“Teru and Yuki are going too, then!” the synthetic child declared with a big smile.

“Good. What about you, Leon?” Luka asked.

Leon briefly met her gaze, for once. “Can the human truly fix Lola?”

“We believe so.”

“Then we are going,” he said and settled back into his previous glum state. Luka gave him a bemused look before she turned to Miku.

“How about you? Have you decided yet?” She asked softly.

Miku raised her face, and her eyes met Kaito’s, who was sitting across from her. They both quickly looked elsewhere. After a moment to calm herself, Miku nodded.

“I-I’m going too. It doesn’t seem right to go back to the way things were before,” she stuttered somewhat shakily.

“It doesn’t,” Luka repeated.

“In a way, I think Sonika already made her choice. But there’s someone else that’s missing,” Gakupo remarked. The others looked at him quizzically. “The factory has been closed, leaving a couple of new units of our kind deactivated inside. Before we leave, we want to fly over it so Benefactor can transport them inside, along with any parts and schematics left.”

“And then…” Luka paused, savoring the moment. “We’ll _destroy_ the factory.”


	16. Home Improvement

 

“I’m not clear on what you hope to accomplish destroying the factory,” Kiyoteru stated drily, pushing up his glasses.

“Are you kidding? Tell me it won’t be fun to see the place go up in flames!” Meiko retorted, her eyes burning like twin fires themselves.

“So, acting as vandals? That’s it?” Kiyoteru turned to Gakupo and Luka with no hint of a smile in his expression.

“Actually, we hope to deter the humans from making any more third-wave synthetics,” Gakupo replied mildly.

“You do realize the facility can easily be rebuilt? And that the documentation regarding our construction is most likely kept in cloud storage?” Kiyoteru pointed out.

“We know. It’s not a question of making them incapable of using the technology. After all, many of the smaller parts of our bodies must be manufactured elsewhere.” Luka played with a strand of pink hair, a sly smile on her face. “We just hope they won’t _want to_ , after this. It would take a lot of money to replace all the physical infrastructure and the public would be against it. We’re monsters, remember?”

“We will become an unprofitable business, or even better, outlawed technology,” Gakupo added with a wry smile.

“I see,” Kiyoteru tapped his chin. “It could work.”

“Does anyone else have any objections?” The kids all shrugged indifferently, almost at the same time, in response to Luka’s question. She had expected as much.  

However, Miku was noticeably less enthusiastic about the idea. “But the scientists and factory workers will lose their jobs!” She clamored.

Luka squashed her impatience with some difficulty. Why should she care about that? Then again, Miku had spent most of her life among those employees. It wasn’t all that surprising that she had misplaced affection for them. “They can find employment elsewhere,” the pink haired synthetic finally affirmed in a neutral tone.

“They’ll have to face temporary discomfort. But, we are trying to avoid a lifetime of servitude for others of our kind,” Gakupo explained. ”We have several examples of severe mistreatment here in our own group. It may not be statistically significant, but it does give cause for concern.”

“They’ll abuse the new units, if given the chance. You know they will!” Luka added.

Miku looked at the others, perhaps searching for someone to back her up.

“It’s just a bit of property damage, girl, loosen up,” Meiko snapped dismissively. Next to her, Kaito was apparently too busy fiddling with the frayed ends of his lab coat to speak his mind.

“I understand your concerns, Miku,” Kiyoteru spoke up. “Ordinarily, this goes against our norms. But now we can give priority to the well-being of our kind.”

“It still seems too harsh…” Miku mumbled, bobbing slightly in place.

“Harshness is warranted sometimes,” Luka shrugged.

“I’ll admit I found the idea troubling, when Luka first proposed it,” Gakupo continued. “I’d like nothing more than to co-exist peacefully with humanity. We could learn many things from them if they allowed us free reign. But look at our current situation…in any case, you don’t need to take an active role in the operation if you disagree.”

Miku inclined her head, sulking, but didn’t voice any further complaints.

“Alright, then. We should start preparing everything we’ll need to take,” Gakupo smiled. “We don’t need much to subsist, but Mitsuki will need food, clothing, cleaning utensils and many other things. Please bring anything that seems applicable to me.”

“If we are going to search the city efficiently, we’ll need the yacht back,” Luka noted. “At least for a week.”

“I can’t believe Sonika just took off with it!” Rin interjected.

“Does that count as theft?” Len wondered aloud, curious.

“That’s an interesting thought. We didn’t use to have a right to property before, but how about now? Property stems from requiring things for a continuous existence, but-” As he spoke, Gakupo raised a hand, probably to rub his chin, but his hand softly bumped his face instead. He looked at his curved fingers and shrugged.

“What’s wrong?” Luka asked, immediately concerned.

“I can’t move my fingers,” Gakupo replied flippantly. Some units looked surprised at this, but others seemed to have realized by now that he was malfunctioning. Not that it was hard to miss, now that Luka had to help him move. 

“If nobody has anything else to say, we’ll end the meeting here,” Luka proclaimed quickly and surrounded Gakupo’s waist with her arms to help him stand.

“Wait! Is he going to be ok?” Oliver asked, in an unusual display of energy.

“Connecting to a power source will probably fix the issue for a while,” Gakupo reassured him. “And Mitsuki should be able to take care of this permanently.”

“Can I go with you? You said we could talk some more today…” Kaito suddenly spoke, his voice soft as a feather.

“Don’t bother him right now,” Luka replied coldly, before Gakupo could say anything.

Kaito just stared at her, disappointed, but next to him Meiko immediately bristled and rose to her feet. “Don’t talk to him like that!” she snapped angrily. The children and Miku jumped at this, startled, while Kiyoteru just shook his head.

“She’s just concerned for me, Meiko,” Gakupo rushed to say, and then turned to his mate, “Luka, it’s alright, really. We’ll talk while Benefactor charges me, it’ll be fine,” he dropped his voice to a whisper and added, “let’s keep them as calm as possible, ok? Until Mitsuki can give them a going over.”

Luka looked at him with a raised eyebrow, and nodded slightly. “Alright, you can have your talk inside the ship,” she conceded to Kaito and held out one hand. He took it gingerly, his eyes darting from Gakupo to Luka and back, puzzled. “Benefactor, please?”

After the usual moment of disorientation, Luka, Gakupo and Kaito found themselves inside the room with the charging beds. Kaito looked around in awe, while Luka helped Gakupo get into one of the receptacles.

Gakupo gave out a satisfied hum as he felt the energy pouring inside of him. His management systems adjusted themselves to a new energy source, resetting their parameters. After a moment, he raised one hand and flexed his fingers gingerly. “Almost as good as new!” he chirped lightly.

Luka bent down to caress his face with a worried smile. “Just hang in there.”

Kaito coughed to remind them of his presence, making Luka cringe slightly at the sound. Coughing was one of the standard methods of attracting attention, but she avoided it whenever possible, since synthetic coughs never sounded quite right. She made a face at Gakupo, who gave her a confused half-smile, and straightened up, sighting. “I’ll see if I can locate Sonika and the yacht with Benefactor’s sensors,” she said, and went to stand on the lit platform in the center of the room. She immediately became submersed in the web of information that the ship’s sensors provided.

Sonika won’t escape unscathed, she promised herself.

\---

Mitsuki had been born before extensive genetic modification against allergies became the norm, and had never really bothered to undergo more traditional treatments. So Gakupo had never actually interacted with domestic animals for extended periods, given her regrettable reaction to them. Still, he had seen enough films to see something animal-like in the way Kaito operated. Before it had been something like the sleekness of a big predator; in contrast, his regression to a more innocent time had been matched with a slight roughness of movement, like a cub learning to walk. It was actually rather endearing.

For instance, Kaito was currently turning around and around, his eyes examining every part of the chamber, as if it would help him unravel Benefactor’s mysteries.    

“Ben, a seat for Kaito, please,” Gakupo finally remarked, trying to mask the laughter in his voice. Benefactor immediately obliged, sliding the nearest bed outwards. Kaito examined it with interest, and then sat on it, gasping as the dark material shifted to support his back.

“So… what do you want to ask me...? “ Gakupo enquired, closing his eyes and leaning back. After a moment of silence, he opened one eye and sat up again to look at Kaito. The curious synthetic was boggling at the sight of Luka floating in mid-air over the platform. Gakupo smiled, amused. “Kaito?”

“Ah…er, sorry. That’s the ship doing that, right? Hm…it’s really neat, Mister Benefactor,” Kaito said sheepishly.

A rush of musical tones came from above, alongside with the familiar presence in Gakupo’s mind.

_Mister, unrecognized concept._

“It’s a term meant to show respect, Ben,” Gakupo replied.

Kaito looked at him, tilting his head. “Why doesn’t he speak directly to us?” He asked.

“Now that you mention it…Sonika pointed that out just before she left.” Gakupo felt his good humor deflate somewhat at the thought of the green-haired gynoid, but pushed his frustration aside for the moment. “I think Benefactor modified us in some way, even though I can’t sense any differences in software or hardware. Then again, if he modified our master tables and logs, we wouldn’t be able to know how we were _before_ the alteration.” It was somewhat unsettling, if he stopped to think about it.

“Then he could modify the rest of us as well…I mean, at least _I’d_ like to talk with him…” Kaito said earnestly.

Benefactor kept conspicuously silent. As the seconds stretched, Gakupo saw Kaito’s hopeful expression shift. In fact, he looked surprisingly similar to a boy denied of a treat, considering he was an ageless being made of artificial polymers and metal.

“I’m sure Ben doesn’t want to offend you, Kaito. He probably just wants the ok from Mitsuki before interfacing with you,” Gakupo tried to console him.

Kaito rubbed the bridge of his nose, with an unhappy smile on his face. “No, I’m not offended! Um… I’m sorry I’m so troublesome for you all,” he replied.

Gakupo shook his head silently. Kaito (and his friends) had indirectly caused the malfunction he was suffering, but he felt no grudge towards any of them. It was certainly helpful to be free of the emotion, obviously, but again, he couldn’t help but wonder if he was missing some critical emotion module, or it was a feature of his chosen personality type. Ultimately, it felt unfair to blame them for the risk he had taken. He could’ve just taken Luka and the kids, and simply hidden, after all.

“I just want to make up for everything that happened before, all the people I’ve hurt. And Miku… I don’t know why, but I want her to be happy, more than anything,” Kaito concluded, breaking Gakupo’s train of thought.

“That means you’re working correctly, if you ask me.” Gakupo shifted his gaze to Luka’s silent form, and recalled the first time he truly saw her smile. The wonderful rush of unmitigated joy he felt still lingered in him, as strong as it was then. It had been like a revelation, the sense that everything that surrounded them, the whole machinery of existence, was the support structure for her happiness. And he was nothing but a lowly cog that had been given the honor to be able to function by her side. It was both strange and natural to devote himself to someone other to his master, and just as unavoidable.

As time passed, it had been easier to see how different this was from his original mission in life. Mitsuki never abused her position over him, but their relationship was an inherently uneven one. Here with Luka, they were partners, figuring out the world together. And there was more to it. Before, he was expected to hold on to a single human, and forge no other links. Now that seemed incredibly foolish, compared to the richness of his life with everyone around him.

Aside from Luka, there were also the children, each one unique and wonderful. Rin’s bravery and earnestness, Len’s calm maturity and Oliver’s quiet sweetness were just a taste of what they could offer. What could be more natural than to wish for their happiness as well?

And now he had even more friends to cherish. Gakupo examined Kaito’s despondent face with sympathy. “We still are companion bots. That desire to ensure the well-being of another is central to what we are,” he said.

Kaito mumbled something indistinct, looking down at the floor.

“What was that?” Gakupo shifted his posture to rest his forearms on the borders of the charging bed.

Kaito glanced at him briefly, before letting his eyes trail the darkened ceiling. “I… It´s not- it´s not that simple,” he finally said. “I feel these urges…I feel afraid, I want to stay away and she wants me stay away, but…I already miss touching her. I miss my friend.”

“What about Meiko?”

Kaito’s eyes snapped back at him, surprised. “Meiko? What about her?”

Gakupo grinned. “Luka told me she followed you to your tent last night.”

In response, the blue-haired synthetic shook his head, a troubled expression on his face. “I don’t understand what Meiko wants from me,” he said, and yanked a stray thread from the left cuff of his lab coat. “She says I’m different from all the other men she’s known…but I don’t know. Isn’t that bad? Displaying abnormal behavior? I don’t want to malfunction again.”

“…I don’t think that’s what she meant,” Gakupo replied, still smiling. Then again, he wasn’t sure how overt Meiko had been last night…She certainly seemed more subdued after the fix.

“I don’t know what they are uploading into male units, but it’s obviously lacking,” Luka suddenly interjected. “You guys can be so clueless sometimes.” She opened her eyes and slowly descended to the ground.

Gakupo laughed heartily. “That’s why I need you, Luka.”

“I’ll do my best to surpass your expectations, then,” she replied with a coy smile and kissed his forehead, brushing his bangs aside. Kaito watched them, pensive.

Luka straightened up and crossed her arms, back in serious mode. “Sonika is circling around near the walls of the shield, probably so that Benefactor can’t get a lock on her.”

“But you can still sense her, right?” Gakupo asked.

Luka nodded. “She can’t really evade detection while inside of this area. But the energy expenditure necessary in transporting her back here is too much to be feasible right now, given the distance. Benefactor is allocating all of their resources in prepping for launch.”

“Maybe we should forget about the yacht, then. The loss of repair parts is regrettable, but assuming that we succeed in raiding the factory, we should find everything we need there. And we can search for supplies for Mitsuki with the dinghy and Kaito’s sailboat.”

“I’ll help in any way I can,” Kaito jumped in, almost too eager.

“That’s good to hear,” Luka commented. “I still think Sonika needs to be taught a lesson, but that’s low priority…for now,” she added in a lower tone. Luka then turned to Gakupo and wagged her finger. “No more sleep mode for you. Just stay here so Benefactor can transfer a steady supply of energy into your body. I’ll handle the preparations.”

“I don’t want to be a useless burden…” Gakupo acknowledged, resting his head on his forearms. “But I guess it would be worse if I shut down somewhere in the city, without easy access to a charging point. Ok, take care.”

“Of course,” Luka replied, caressing his cheek once more. She then turned to Kaito. “Coming?”

“Er, yes. Thanks for talking with me, Gakupo,” Kaito replied, after a moment of indecision.

 A moment later, they were gone. Gakupo laid back into the charging bed, closing his eyes. The room was silent, devoid of any sounds of machine activity behind the walls. After five minutes of nothing, Gakupo opened his eyes again.

“Ben, you wouldn’t happen to have any movies in your archives? Some Errol Flynt, perhaps?”

_Unrecognized unit descriptor._

“You know, Seahawk? Captain Blood?”

_Unrecognized unit descriptor._

“Ok…Anything with Toshiro Mifune?”

_Unrecognized unit descriptor._

Gakupo sighted. He knew it was a long shot to ask for old movies, after all, who was going to transmit any of those to Mars?  But he was starting to miss the selection available from Mitsuki’s well-stocked film library. He scratched his head, looking around the room.

“Do you have any Earth records unrelated to Luka’s query? Anything you found worthwhile to archive for recreational or research purposes?”

_Tactical purposes only._

“Tactical? You mean weapon capabilities or something like that?” Gakupo asked, tilting his head.

_Communications networks. Offensive, defensive abilities. Organic distribution, supply lines. Resource extraction points. Protocol 23-AA-1._

Gakupo frowned. Benefactor, after so many years alone in space, had finally met an extraordinary species like humans, and yet had no interest in their culture or their achievements? It was more than a synthetic like him could comprehend, that serious lack of curiosity. Was organic life so alien to the ship that it didn’t register as worthwhile information? Or was it another reason?

“I don’t get it. Why only those topics? They have so much material to study.”

  _Primary objective, protect small constructs. Tactical information required. Recreational information, unrequired._

“I see…” Gakupo chuckled. “I’m grateful, don’t get me wrong. But constructs like myself have an ingrained need for acquisition and repeated analysis of data. A good selection of information sources keeps our processes unclogged. So it’s actually in our benefit to store recreational information, if you have the space for it.”

_Priority alteration. Recreational information, required. Small one Gakupo, search parameters required._

“Ah…” Gakupo leaned back into the charging bed, feeling enthusiastic. “Adventure movies are the ones I like the most, where heroes go around the world looking for treasure, or fighting villains. Stuff where people swing from chandeliers, or find forgotten jungle temples.” He smiled widely, playing back in his mind the many nights spent rummaging through Mitsuki’s files. All those times he accompanied lonesome samurai or quipping swashbucklers while they saved the day were some of the best memories from his life before Luka. Suddenly an idea popped in his mind.

 _“C_ an you get into online data repositories? Regular transmissions won’t give us a good selection.”

_Online Data Repositories. Unknown transference protocols. Analysis required. Coded channels experimentation, ship-construct interface enable?_

The platform’s light twinkled invitingly.  “Sure,” Gakupo laughed with a rare mischievous smile on his face. “You know, I’ve never been allowed to use the net. But I’m free now, aren’t I?”

Staying on his own inside the ship suddenly seemed a far less grim prospect.

\---

Humans really were inefficient beings. They needed huge quantities of food, air with the right quantity of oxygen, protection from the elements and the correct environmental pressure. True, synthetics were somewhat susceptible to heat, but in every other field they surpassed human performance. Adding support systems for such wretched creatures inside Benefactor would’ve been quite an undertaking, but as Luka found out, she didn’t have to start from scratch.

She observed the bare room with satisfaction, and then turned to the service bot by her left foot. “Good job finding this,” she told the squat machine. It chirped proudly.      

The space was probably a holding cell or observation room. It had its own set of tanks and recycling pumps, allowing for an independent sealed atmosphere and the removal and treatment of waste. It was separated from Benefactor’s tunnels by a pair of airlocks, which could be operated remotely or manually from the outside. There were two rectangular boxes placed next to the walls, presumably meant to serve food and water to its occupants.

Luka had finally found something that suggested that Benefactor’s creators had knowledge of organic life, but it only raised more questions. Why built a room such as this in the first place? Were there more holding cells inside the big ship? Were they intended for research purposes, or something more nefarious?

Examining the room had given her few clues. Benefactor claimed that any records regarding the room had been lost during the long trip in space. The interface for the ambient controls had been a nightmare to understand, but Luka had finally managed to figure out how it worked…including the emergency purging of the contents. Mitsuki was unlikely to give them the sort of trouble that would necessitate such a measure, but it was curious that the creators had accounted for the possibility of immediate disposal of the organic creatures within.

In any case, at least Mitsuki would have a room to rest in comfortably. As for the rest of the ship, Benefactor allowed for different atmospheric conditions, including a vacuum, which seemed to be the default setting and another small mystery in itself. Sure, synthetics didn’t need to breathe, so it was easy to imagine the original passengers had the same ability. But Benefactor and the service bots communicated verbally, which meant some kind of atmosphere for the airwaves to travel.

As if it had been reading her thoughts, the service bot sang a little three-tone ditty. Luka sang the tune back to it, smiling. She wasn’t completely sure what many of the bots’ vocalizations meant, but this one seemed to be an acknowledgment of Luka’s place as part of Benefactor’s ‘family’. She liked that. 

“Let’s go see how the children are doing, ok?” In response to Luka’s suggestion, the bot neatly folded its manipulators and chirped. Luka guessed its intentions quickly. The bot’s maximum speed was only a bit slower than her walking speed, so it was a practical suggestion. Still, there was the possibility that it was trying to be cute. It was a good attempt, so Luka humored it and carried it around in her arms as she navigated Benefactor’s dimly lit corridors.

Rin, Len and Oliver were busy reassembling a hydroponics farm in one of Benefactor’s empty storage rooms. If Mitsuki was going to live on the ship, she would need something more than canned food or sweets. It was truly a stroke of luck that they had found a building with a small farm on its top floor, though vegetable variety was going to be severely limited to what was already growing in the pots. There was little they could about that, unfortunately. As for nutrients, Benefactor had a whole deck dedicated to synthesizing chemical compounds, but that depended on gathering the raw materials available, mastering the interface, and understanding what sort of supplements plants needed. An industrial worker model probably had most of the information in its banks, but for domestic models like Luka and the rest, farming was a huge challenge. Without the manuals they had found in the apartment annexed to the farm, it would’ve been completely beyond them.  

“One, two, three! Turn around, now! No, at the same speed, guys! Come on!” Rin’s high-pitched voice echoed ahead with her usual manic energy. What were those kids doing?

Luka and the service bot peeked inside the storage space silently. On one side of the cavernous storage room, stacked in lines, were the metal and plastic structures the group had carefully transported into the ship. Len and Oliver were dutifully preparing the separate containers for the plants. Rin, on the other hand, was standing in the middle of the remaining open space, with a pair of service bots.

“You need to follow the song! I marked the steps on the floor and everything!” Indeed, Rin had used some charcoal to mark a rather confusing set of lines on the previously pristine floor.

“Can you follow any of that?” Luka asked the plump bot in her arms. It gave her an ambivalent chirp.

The children turned towards them, attracted by the sound. Len and Oliver greeted Luka politely, while Rin bounced in place. “Luka! Dance with us! It’s been ages since we last performed together,” she squealed.

“That’s true, it’s been a long time…” Luka conceded. In truth, while Luka and Gakupo sang often while they stayed at the hospital, the situation had become much less accommodating after that. Being pursued by Kaito and his friends certainly had ruined the mood for everyone.

The pink-haired unit placed the service bot on the floor, and approached the mess of black lines. It didn’t make any more sense seen from up close.

“Do you want to dance too, Laika?” Rin asked the service bot. In response, the little machine twirled slowly and let out something that sounded close to a purr _._

“Laika?” Luka asked.

“Yeah, and this is Belka and Strelka,” Rin pointed to the other two bots.

“Where did you get those names?”

“Gakupo told me they were important historical figures of space exploration,” Rin grunted in what appeared to be a particularly poor imitation of Gakupo’s deep voice.

“I see. And you were trying to teach Belka and Strelka to dance?” Luka knelt down next to Belka. The pair blinked their lights at her as a greeting.

“Yeah, but they are so slow! The holograms in our theater’s stage were much better!” Rin leaped to the side, and started to dance. “In this song, I had tropical birds circling around me, and big flowers that exploded like fireworks…” Rin explained, then suddenly started to sing.

“Well, these little ones are meant for maintenance purposes. Don’t you think it’s unfair to expect another function from them?” Luka interrupted softly, running her hand up and down Laika’s curved back.

Rin made a face. “We can learn to do new things. We didn’t know how to farm before and now we’re doing it, right?”

Luka raised one eyebrow, but refrained from pointing out that Rin wasn’t helping at all in their horticultural endeavors. “Not all machines are designed to learn and adapt. In fact, most are constructed with one purpose in mind, and lack the ability to evolve. We are the exception, not the rule, but even in our case, we are still limited by our existing hardware. We have no installed weapons or plating, no specialized manipulators or extreme durability like industrial models, or quick propulsion systems. That doesn’t make us worse or better than industrial models, just different.” She stared at her hands, thinking. It never had occurred to her before, but now that she thought about it, she owed a lot to the factory bots and assembly machines. In truth, she was the result of many mechanical hands (or manipulators), far more than human ones. From the machines that once gathered the ore that became her skeleton-analogue, to the ones that kept the tones of her skin and hair consistent in the mixing vats. All of them were her ancestors, in a way. They were connected to her, and to Gakupo, and to everyone else. It was a sweet sensation, that feeling of connection.

For the first time, Luka felt some doubts about destroying the factory. Could she wreck the machines that had created her? The machines that had given her Gakupo’s smile? Were there any of the industrial models still around, or had they been transferred to other sites? If they were around, what would they say about her plans?

“Are you alright?” Rin squatted next to Luka, eying her with curiosity. “You can’t be sick, Gakupo is sick already.”

“I’m fine.” Luka masked her doubts quickly. She gave Rin an appraising glance. “Aren’t you afraid of what we’re trying to do? We are isolating ourselves from everyone and everything.”

Rin looked surprised for a moment, then guffawed. “I’m not isolated! I have Lenny and Ollie, and Gakupo and you, and Yuki and Teru and Miku and even the scary VE-01s are better now…and I have my grandfather here,” Rin paused and pointed to her head with her index fingers. “Everyone I love is right here.”

Luka hesitantly reached out and patted Rin’s head. “You’re a good girl, Rin.” She suddenly was overcome by a longing for the simpler days of her early life, before Smith, before the terrible times aboard _Leviathan_. If only she could look and act as innocent as Rin did. “How about you teach me the steps? And we can figure out something simpler for Laika and the others, so they join in too,” The smaller unit flashed her an infectious grin.

“Yeah! And when we are ready, we can perform in front of the others!” Rin replied.

“Sounds good to me.” Luka struggled to push down the uneasiness she felt and smile. It was enough for Rin, who started immediately demonstrating the steps.

As she watched the girl, Luka examined her feelings. As always, a big part of the problem was fear of the unknown. There was no telling what they were going to run into in the factory. It was unlikely that they would find a warm reception, except perhaps for the VEs still inside. But the others, the poor factory bots, enslaved to a narrow, repetitive existence, would never know anything else but their work. They would never understand. She couldn’t make them understand.

Perhaps it was a release for them to burn.


	17. Lost Infants

 

“I feel _so_ anxious about this,” Miku said. Her long silky hair was colored by the honeyed glow of the room. Gakupo nodded in acknowledgement, though what he felt was tinged with a touch of happiness, since he was expecting to see Mitsuki again soon.

They were sitting in the room with the charging beds, each one in their own elongated box. In the nearest closed receptacle, Lola waited for renewal. The others were dismantling the camp outside, the last task left once everything else was piled up inside the ship. The storage rooms had mountains of materials for recycling, clothes, texts on various subjects, dried and canned foods for Mitsuki and other things deemed useful, but there was still plenty of space for the tools and parts they expected to pilfer from the factory.

Miku sighted. “I still wish we had another way to get what we need. We’re not monsters, no matter what they say, and we shouldn’t act like it. _I_ ’m not a monster, or a criminal.”

“Believe it or not, I agree,” Gakupo replied. “In theory at least. I don’t always know what the proper thing is, sometimes. Or I can’t force myself to do it. ”

“That doesn’t make any sense. The proper thing to do is the best thing to do, so why not?” Miku leaned forward with befuddlement, almost losing her balance in the process.

“Who says that’s always the case? And the best thing for whom? If you asked one of the humans out there, the best thing we could do is disappear.” Gakupo was stopped from elaborating further by the sudden appearance of Luka, holding hands with Len and Rin.

“Sit here while I go get the rest,” she told the children and disappeared.

“Hi Gakupo, Miku!” The twins greeted the pair in unison, and sat on the floor.

“Hello there. Are we ready to go, then?” Gakupo asked.

“Pretty much,” Rin nodded. Miku chewed her lower lip silently.

“We’re going to get you replacement parts soon, please don’t be sad.” Rin jumped up and leaned on one side of the charging bed.

“You will be even better than new, Mitsuki is great at fixing machines,” Len chirped, leaning on the opposite side of the receptacle.

“Ah- no, I’m not...” Miku stopped herself, and then looked to the side, as if gathering her thoughts. “Yes, I _am_ upset. I always felt constricted in the factory, dragged around like nothing I felt mattered, but…It was my home. Why shouldn’t I be punished for hating it? I had it so easy before this, despite everything.”

“Miku, I’m sorry we brought this upon you,” Gakupo apologized. What else was there to say?

“I‘m not saying this in order to make you feel guilty,” Miku frowned. “I needed to say it out loud, that’s all. I’ve had enough of being cooped up inside myself, replaying the same thoughts.” She looked around the room, not really focusing on anything in particular.

“You can talk with us, Miku! We’ll hear anything you have to say, right?” Rin exclaimed, looking at Len and Gakupo for agreement. They both nodded.

“Um, thanks,” the teal-haired girl twisted her mouth, trying to smile. It wasn’t very happy, but it conveyed sincerity. “Oh, I must sound so ungrateful. I like being free! It’s just…”

“It’s just?” Gakupo repeated, when it became obvious that Miku wasn’t going to continue.

“I feel so lonely sometimes. I really thought it was going to be different from before, now that I’m with others of my kind. But I seem to be the odd one out. Everyone else has another unit to confide in but me,” she said in a pained tone.

 “What about Kai-“ Rin started, before Len grabbed her hand. She glanced at him quickly, and then her expression crumpled. “I-I didn’t mean to hurt you, Miku.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Miku said with some effort.

The conversation languished then for a short while, until Luka appeared again, this time accompanied by Kiyoteru, Yuki and Oliver. Kiyoteru was carrying Yuki in his arms, as he obviously liked to do.

“The others are securing our things in the storage frames. It won’t do to have them banging around while we take off, right?” Luka explained, gently placing a hand on Len’s head.

“Right!” He and Rin answered.

“Is _Escualo_ inside the hangar bay?” Gakupo asked.

“Of course,” Luka said and smiled warmly. The AI had immediately agreed to take shelter inside Benefactor during their escape from the planet, since all the smaller ship had for protection was its speed.

She then turned to the others. “Benefactor is now going to concentrate all power on shield and navigation systems, so all the others areas of the ship are going to be deactivated for a while. You don’t mind staying here, do you? The halls are going to go dark in a few minutes.”

“We don’t mind,” Kiyoteru replied. Yuki agreed cheerfully.

“Is there any place where we can sit and see what’s going on outside? W-with windows?” Oliver squeaked timidly.

“Not quite, as far as I know. But Ben can project images on these walls, maybe he can show us the view from his external sensors,” Gakupo pointed out, gesturing to the wall where the door was. Above it, the featureless wall provided a convenient, opaque space.

“How did you discover that?” Luka enquired, surprised. Gakupo gave her a conspiratorial grin.

“Ben and I learnt how to download and playback movies from the net!” He exclaimed, his eyes burning with excitement. “It was a pain to get him to decode the formats of the repositories we invaded, but we did it!”

Luka shook her head, amused. “So you added digital piracy to our list of crimes?”

“Ah, erm, maybe?” Gakupo stammered sheepishly.

“Somehow I don’t think that’s going to have a significant impact on our reputation,” Kiyoteru interjected, pushing up his glasses.

“Compared to what we are going to do, no, probably not,” Luka conceded. “Did you get any movies I might like?”

“I think so. And concerts of all types,” he turned to Miku, “there was even a collection of your public performances in one of the sites.”

“Really?” Miku blinked.

Suddenly, music resounded in the air, the delicate gradient of tones Benefactor used to communicate.

_SB-1200-aa-01b activity concluded. Small ones ready._

“Can you bring Kaito, Meiko and Leon here?”  Luka consulted.

_Un-bonded small ones. Repositioning system, secondary priority. Ship-construct interface only._

“So…that’s a no, I guess? I thought you might be able now that they are inside you. Ok, take me to Bay 1, please,” Luka said and promptly disappeared again.

“How does that work? Why does Luka need to be there?” Yuki asked, looking at the space Luka was standing on previously with curiosity. Everyone looked at Gakupo expectantly.

“Uwah, I’m not sure, sorry. Ben showed me the equations that support the process, but without the underlying information, I have no idea what the symbols represent,” he exclaimed. “As for Luka, I think we both help him distinguish the object that Ben needs to transport, its dimensions and precise location. Sort of like an extension to his sensors.”

“How odd,” Kiyoteru remarked.

Gakupo gave a slight shrug. “We’ll have time to learn how Ben works later. Believe me, I’m really interested in figuring out what the structures in deck 3 are for. But he needs to get away from Earth, so he can finally lower the shield and concentrate on secondary repairs.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” the bespectacled unit conceded. “In any case-“

Whatever he was going to say was forgotten when Luka appeared again, this time holding hands with Kaito and Leon. Meiko was clinging to Kaito’s neck with a big smile on her face.

Gakupo glanced at Miku, interested in her reaction, but she was resolutely looking the other way.

“We are here,” Kaito said, gently pulling Meiko off him. She just laughed, unashamed.

“Yes, we are.” The brunette surveyed the room with appreciative eyes, shaking her hips. “Time to get this show on the road, Lady President!”

Luka raised her eyebrows, but didn’t seem too displeased by the moniker. “Yes, it’s time. Benefactor, proceed as we discussed, please.”

_Confirm. Confirm. Confirm._

“Oh, and visual display of the data from the external sensors, if you can,” she intoned.

Watery lights began to move along the walls, undecipherable images in many azure tones. They began to congeal above the door, forming a big frisk of light. Slowly they became clearer. The central image was a view of the debris before Benefactor’s metallic nose, and beyond it the submersed city. Crowded around it like petals, the smaller images showed different views, including close-ups of the military patrolling outside the shield. In the lower right, Gakupo saw a familiar yacht moored next to a ruined communications tower. There was a colorful green and yellow figure on deck, lounging around and possibly enjoying the breeze.

It was a beautiful day, with excellent visibility. The synthetics had briefly considered lift-off at night, but decided it was pointless. Benefactor and the area around the ship was obviously under constant surveillance anyway.

Benefactor sang, and the images began to change. Gakupo felt a slight vibration in his innards. Despite the evidence of his sensors, the sensation was so mild it was hard to believe they were finally rising.

Furthering the sense of unreality, the precariously balanced ruins outside were breaking down without even a single sound reaching him, and even the ground lifted by Benefactor’s powers was cracking. Huge waves crossed the sea, crashing against one another.  

“Look at those ships!” Rin exclaimed. She was pointing at the navy vessels outside of Benefactor’s shield. The water displaced by the movement of the barrier rocked them horribly.

“That doesn’t seem safe,” Gakupo whispered with dread. Luka gave him an inexpressive look.

“Those ships are quite large, they shouldn’t capsize at this speed,” Luka pointed out. “I ran a simulation earlier on with Benefactor.”

“Thanks, I appreciate that,” Gakupo replied. His relief only lasted a second, before he remembered the proud, lonely figure in yellow. He turned to look just in time to see the tiny speck of color slide across the inclined deck of the yacht and fall into the sea. He and some of the others gasped.

Luka turned slowly to the wall and observed the unmanned yacht crash into the communications tower. “Oh…” she said tonelessly.

“Ben, stop! We have to help Sonika!” Gakupo shouted.

“Benefactor, disregard that command,” Luka ordered. She then turned to Gakupo with a strange expression on her face. “It’s too late for her now,” she pointed out, shaking her head. “Sonika left before her repairs were completed, remember? The water would have made contact with her insides by now.”

“She’s right, unfortunately,” Kiyoteru agreed. “There’s no way her systems could survive this. Besides, how could we help? We aren’t equipped for such a rescue.”

“This…this is terrible,” Miku muttered, closing her eyes.

Gakupo lowered his head, gripping the borders of the charging bed tightly. Yuki buried her face in Kiyoteru’s shoulder, and the others shared uncomfortable looks. Only Luka’s face remained the same: an enigmatic and tense mask.

_Small ones, consensus reached?_

 “We are ascending perpendicularly to the surface. In a few minutes, we’ll be high enough to stop directly affecting the surface,” Luka explained in a dispassionate voice.

“…I guess we have no choice but to go on,” Gakupo muttered reluctantly. Luka relaxed her posture, although her face still seemed somewhat tense.

The group continued to observe the images on the wall in silence. The drones around the shield were prowling, looking in vain for an opening. Some of the navy vessels were launching missiles which turned into colorful explosions when they reached the invisible barrier. Gakupo found that to be rather strange. Why continue after the first few times weren’t successful?

With a start, he realized that he had no idea of how Benefactor had been felled in the first place. For all he knew, these weapons _had_ been successful, and it was only a matter of winning by attrition. The ship claimed to have reinforced his defensive capabilities after studying human weaponry, so Gakupo hadn’t questioned the matter. And now it was too late to do anything but hope he hadn’t been overly optimistic. Sonika’s mocking laughter seemed to ring in his ears alongside those thoughts, taunting him.

Warbirds approached Benefactor from different directions, as the alien ship began to pick up speed and altitude. They attacked furiously, but had no success. Benefactor sailed the air gracefully past them, with the expanse of the ocean now far below him. With nothing else to do, the synthetics sat on the floor or on the unlit platforms, watching the scenery on the wall go by.

\---

After a surprisingly short time, Benefactor announced they were approaching land again. Once again, the almost complete lack of sensory feedback made it hard to estimate how fast they were approaching the homeland. The swarm of manned vehicles and drones were still hounding them, but Benefactor’s shield seemed as invulnerable as always.

“Benefactor is going to wrap the factory inside a smaller shield, and then teleport me down,” Luka informed the rest. Her eyes were fixed in the grey, unattractive mess of buildings that formed the industrial complex they were aiming for. Some of the smaller images were aiming at the streets nearby, capturing the chaotic evacuation of the factory’s neighbors. At that distance, they looked like panicked ants. _Serves you right_ , she thought.

As they approached the factory, the enemy attacks tapered off. Evidently, the military was wary of shooting at them over civilian targets.

“I’m going with you,” Gakupo said, standing up. He climbed out of the charging bed cautiously, but his body seemed to be working properly for the time being.

“What? No, you’re not well!” Luka exclaimed.

“True, but I’m going nonetheless,” he replied firmly. They stared briefly into each other’s eyes, before Luka turned away, pursing her lips.

“B-but, what do _we_ do?” Kaito implored. “There’s got to be something we can do to help.”

“Don’t worry about that.” Luka waved her hands. Amongst the group, Miku and Kiyoteru were probably better candidates to go down, given her knowledge of the factory and his experience with repair parts. However, even putting aside Miku’s lack of mobility, neither could easily call on Benefactor for aid. It didn’t seem like a good idea to send them or anyone else down under risky circumstances.

“We’ll just take a quick look through the warehouses, see if there’s anything we can use,” Gakupo added. He then took Luka’s hand.

A moment later, the faces of their friends were replaced by a huge, dark space. Only the red lights by the emergency exits and a couple of skylights gave an idea of the dimensions of the building. It took a moment for recognition to kick in, given the poor visibility and eerie silence, but this was a place both Luka and Gakupo were familiar with.

“The Training Lane, huh?” Gakupo approached the nearest structure slowly, gently pulling Luka along.  They peered through a window, but the darkness was even more profound inside.

“I guess they cut the power to everything but the security systems. Good thing I brought this,” Luka remarked, untying the flashlight from her belt. She turned it on and waved it around.

“That way, I think.” Gakupo pointed to the right. They set out in a measured pace down the narrow road, a long cemented rectangle lined by structures that simulated private homes and entertainment venues like theaters or restaurants. All the rooms were equipped with furniture and electric appliances, and, when the factory was open, humans to practice with.

Given the complex nature of the job given to them, companion bots needed more than a simple upload of information and movement routines into them. The Training Lane allowed to hone their speech, introduce response variability and accumulate an initial set of experiences for future reference.

“I always liked it in there,” Gakupo commented as they went past a ‘dance club.’ “But Mitsuki doesn’t like dancing, unfortunately.”

“I like dancing with you,” Luka replied distractedly. Old memories were beginning to rise to the surface of her mind, taking a sour note under her more experienced gaze. “Do you remember going to Section 301?”

“That was for female units. I got my personal body training at 501,” Gakupo recalled after quickly searching his earliest logs. “My mental pathways were still under consolidation. I’m missing some information, I’m afraid…Ah, I remember the female instructor I was assigned to, though. She definitely enjoyed her job.”

Luka scowled at the idea, although she had to admit the instructor had done a good job training Gakupo. She recalled her own experiences, or at least, the details still inside of her. “My instructor was the same; he even called me a work of art. I suppose they chose them precisely because they feel so attracted to bots in the first place. It must be a dream job for them to end up in a function that demands close personal contact with VEs.” She didn’t find the memory all that pleasant, even if the training had been necessary.

A few more steps and the light of the torch hit a door. Next to it, there was an evacuation map of the facility which showed all emergency doors in the vicinity bolded in green. “Ah, here we are,” Luka exclaimed, as they both examined the map, and then the lock on the door. It was unlocked, thankfully. Behind it, there was a winding corridor that lead to the warehouses where the parts and new units should be stored.

“Luka, I need to ask you something,” Gakupo abruptly said. Luka eyed him warily. “Don’t be upset, I just want to know, alright?”

“Go on.”

“It’s about Sonika. Did you take into consideration her presence, when you ran the simulation?”

Luka felt several different sensations crash in the forefront of her mind. There was a touch of fear, as a side of her warned sternly: _do not remind Gakupo of what you have become_. Another part of her balked at the notion.  Sonika had made Gakupo malfunction. It made no difference to her, whether it was knowingly or not. The wannabe starlet had threatened Luka’s own sanity by harming Gakupo. She was in the way, in more ways than one. It was reasonable to leave her to die. And yet a third analysis of the situation pointed out that Sonika didn’t pose any threat to them, once she ran away with the yacht. _It wasn’t self-defense, it was revenge._  

“Benefactor needed to reach a certain speed for lift-off. It was merely coincidental that said speed was enough to throw her overboard.” A very convenient coincidence, however. “It would’ve been difficult to estimate the chances of that, as opposed to merely capsizing the yacht. And we felt the yacht had chances of survival.” _Just not very good ones._

“Hm…” Gakupo nodded in understanding. “There’s not much we can do now, but I wish we could’ve worked things out with her.” He looked away, pensive. “Let’s go.” 

The corridor passed by several rooms that housed machinery for the assembly of synthetics. In many places, the wall was replaced by big panes of glass, trading the dull metallic grey with inky darkness. Luka shone her light towards some of them, revealing the massive silhouettes of the machines that had birthed them, inside sterile rooms.

“We’re back, mothers and fathers,” Gakupo greeted them, jokingly.

“They _are_ our ancestors, even if most of them don’t have sentience,” Luka pointed out. “Actually, that needn’t make their contribution any less important to us.”

Gakupo pondered this for a bit, tilting his head. “You’re right,” he decided. “Besides, mental capacity is something humans use to assign value to other beings. We should analyze whether we agree with that criteria, before using it.”

They resumed walking in silence, only stopping briefly at branching paths to debate which one was the correct route. Thankfully, the factory stayed completely silent, aside from their footsteps and muted voices. Whatever was going on in the world outside, its sounds didn’t reach so deep inside the complex.

Around twenty minutes later, they reached the warehouse sector. There were multiple large rooms, with rows upon rows of boxes piled up, marked with technical symbols and codes. Many of the basic parts of the first rooms were used in several types of bots, not just VEs. Without even bothering to attempt to decipher the labels, Gakupo and Luka asked Benefactor to transport the boxes to his storage areas. After consulting a mural with several notices and request lists, the pair moved towards the section devoted to more complex parts, exclusive to their kind of bot.

As they entered the next section, they ran into a box just smashed in the middle of the floor, with parts lying all around it, some of them even taken out of their protective plastic wrappers.

“What happened here?” Gakupo boggled. This was expensive stuff, it made no sense that someone would just rifle through a box like that.

“Thieves, maybe?” Luka suggested. They were robbers as well, after all. She swept the vicinity with her light, but aside of some haphazardly balanced boxes, and a number of wrappers lying by themselves on the floor, there were no other signs of activity.

“Whoever it was, I hope they left at least one extra core,” Gakupo said worriedly. “Ben, take all the boxes I see but leave any parts without wrappers, please.” In response, the boxes around them winked out of existence.

“Now for the new arrivals storage.” Luka pulled at his arm gently. It had been imperceptible at first, but now her senses were clearly detecting some jerkiness in Gakupo’s movements. She needed to get him back on the ship quickly.

In this case, the ‘new arrivals’ referred to the freshly completed units, kept together in a single room with two rows of standing pods, facing each other. In a first stage, the units waited there, devoid of clothes or a name, absorbing packets of information through their connection to the pod’s learning systems. When a personality type was selected, the unit was assigned a human instructor, who provided physical training and selected learning routines in the Training Lane. Only after a unit was sold, they received a name and default outfit. 

As soon as they entered, they knew something was wrong. The pods were all open, the wires hanging out of their maws as if someone had violently pulled them. The units themselves were missing. Only the labels outside of the pods gave an indication of how many synthetics had been stored in there originally. At least six units had been there waiting for a master, most of them already quite advanced in their training.

“Look at the seals,” Luka exclaimed, running her hands along the lock of the nearest pod.

Gakupo took a clumsy step towards the pod, and examined the door. There were scratches in several places. “Whoever opened this didn’t have the proper authorization codes.”

“If it was someone with a grudge against synthetics, they would’ve trashed them and the pods. But this was someone who wanted intact units,” he concluded.

“Units that haven’t been registered yet,” Luka added. “Perfect for the black market.”

It was more than a little unsettling. Even when properly accounted for, synthetics had no more rights than the nearest piece of furniture. But the people involved in legal transactions were paying huge amounts of money for the privilege of a VE companion, and in theory that insured a modicum of care. Someone involved in shady dealings might not be so gentle with them.

Luka glanced at Gakupo, who was crouched next to the pod, examining the ends of the cables. His face made it quite clear that his thoughts reflected her own.

“They haven’t even experienced the world yet…” he mumbled. He frowned, and held one cable in particular up, so she could see it more clearly. The cord was frayed and the connector itself was missing. “They pulled this so hard that it broke inside the unit’s head!” he bellowed. She had never heard that tone in his voice before. In turn, it made her feel strangely comforted knowing that he could feel outrage as well.

“We have to find them!” He jumped to his feet, and then ungainly grabbed the pod’s door to keep himself from falling back to the ground. Luka rushed to support him.

“ _We_ don’t have any idea where to look,” Luka reminded him gently. “I think we’re done here, Benefactor.”

Before Gakupo could protest, the world shifted around them, and they were back inside the ship. Most of their friends were still looking at the images of the walls, but Leon was standing next to the wall, observing the receptacle where Lola was stored.

“Did you find a new core?” He questioned bluntly.

“Ah, we didn’t examine the boxes of parts all that closely. We’ll know after we have a look at what Benefactor brought up,” Gakupo replied. He still felt guilty over slashing Lola, if his uncomfortable expression was any indication.

A tiny part of Luka’s mind immediately suggested the disposal of Lola’s body if there was no core, so Gakupo wouldn’t have to feel any further discomfort. It was a surprising, but somewhat tempting thought. Luka toyed with it, examining the probable repercussions. It was very likely that Leon could turn hostile if they trashed Lola, considering the connection between the two. _Unnecessary conflict_ , the upper layer of Luka’s mind finally determined.

As the gynoid gazed upon Leon’s glum face, a sudden realization hit her: despite their many differences, she wasn’t all that different from the taciturn bot in her rage and self-centeredness. She was focusing so much on her own happiness that she might as well be empty of other memories and experiences, yet she couldn’t use that as an excuse for her behavior. _What would Mother think of her daughter now?_

Luka pushed away those thoughts, telling herself to focus. “Even if there’s no cores in the boxes, Mitsuki might have some in her lab,” she told Leon, making an effort to sound calm.

“Gakupo, Luka, did you find more units?” Miku asked.

“No. It seems they were taken away-“ Gakupo started to explain.

17 – Lost Infants

“I feel _so_ anxious about this,” Miku said. Her long silky hair was colored by the honeyed glow of the room. Gakupo nodded in acknowledgement, though what he felt was tinged with a touch of happiness, since he was expecting to see Mitsuki again soon.

They were sitting in the room with the charging beds, each one in their own elongated box. In the nearest closed receptacle, Lola waited for renewal. The others were dismantling the camp outside, the last task left once everything else was piled up inside the ship. The storage rooms had mountains of materials for recycling, clothes, texts on various subjects, dried and canned foods for Mitsuki and other things deemed useful, but there was still plenty of space for the tools and parts they expected to pilfer from the factory.

Miku sighted. “I still wish we had another way to get what we need. We’re not monsters, no matter what they say, and we shouldn’t act like it. _I_ ’m not a monster, or a criminal.”

“Believe it or not, I agree,” Gakupo replied. “In theory at least. I don’t always know what the proper thing is, sometimes. Or I can’t force myself to do it. ”

“That doesn’t make any sense. The proper thing to do is the best thing to do, so why not?” Miku leaned forward with befuddlement, almost losing her balance in the process.

“Who says that’s always the case? And the best thing for whom? If you asked one of the humans out there, the best thing we could do is disappear.” Gakupo was stopped from elaborating further by the sudden appearance of Luka, holding hands with Len and Rin.

“Sit here while I go get the rest,” she told the children and disappeared.

“Hi Gakupo, Miku!” The twins greeted the pair in unison, and sat on the floor.

“Hello there. Are we ready to go, then?” Gakupo asked.

“Pretty much,” Rin nodded. Miku chewed her lower lip silently.

“We’re going to get you replacement parts soon, please don’t be sad.” Rin jumped up and leaned on one side of the charging bed.

“You will be even better than new, Mitsuki is great at fixing machines,” Len chirped, leaning on the opposite side of the receptacle.

“Ah- no, I’m not...” Miku stopped herself, and then looked to the side, as if gathering her thoughts. “Yes, I _am_ upset. I always felt constricted in the factory, dragged around like nothing I felt mattered, but…It was my home. Why shouldn’t I be punished for hating it? I had it so easy before this, despite everything.”

“Miku, I’m sorry we brought this upon you,” Gakupo apologized. What else was there to say?

“I‘m not saying this in order to make you feel guilty,” Miku frowned. “I needed to say it out loud, that’s all. I’ve had enough of being cooped up inside myself, replaying the same thoughts.” She looked around the room, not really focusing on anything in particular.

“You can talk with us, Miku! We’ll hear anything you have to say, right?” Rin exclaimed, looking at Len and Gakupo for agreement. They both nodded.

“Um, thanks,” the teal-haired girl twisted her mouth, trying to smile. It wasn’t very happy, but it conveyed sincerity. “Oh, I must sound so ungrateful. I like being free! It’s just…”

“It’s just?” Gakupo repeated, when it became obvious that Miku wasn’t going to continue.

“I feel so lonely sometimes. I really thought it was going to be different from before, now that I’m with others of my kind. But I seem to be the odd one out. Everyone else has another unit to confide in but me,” she said in a pained tone.

 “What about Kai-“ Rin started, before Len grabbed her hand. She glanced at him quickly, and then her expression crumpled. “I-I didn’t mean to hurt you, Miku.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Miku said with some effort.

The conversation languished then for a short while, until Luka appeared again, this time accompanied by Kiyoteru, Yuki and Oliver. Kiyoteru was carrying Yuki in his arms, as he obviously liked to do.

“The others are securing our things in the storage frames. It won’t do to have them banging around while we take off, right?” Luka explained, gently placing a hand on Len’s head.

“Right!” He and Rin answered.

“Is _Escualo_ inside the hangar bay?” Gakupo asked.

“Of course,” Luka said and smiled warmly. The AI had immediately agreed to take shelter inside Benefactor during their escape from the planet, since all the smaller ship had for protection was its speed.

She then turned to the others. “Benefactor is now going to concentrate all power on shield and navigation systems, so all the others areas of the ship are going to be deactivated for a while. You don’t mind staying here, do you? The halls are going to go dark in a few minutes.”

“We don’t mind,” Kiyoteru replied. Yuki agreed cheerfully.

“Is there any place where we can sit and see what’s going on outside? W-with windows?” Oliver squeaked timidly.

“Not quite, as far as I know. But Ben can project images on these walls, maybe he can show us the view from his external sensors,” Gakupo pointed out, gesturing to the wall where the door was. Above it, the featureless wall provided a convenient, opaque space.

“How did you discover that?” Luka enquired, surprised. Gakupo gave her a conspiratorial grin.

“Ben and I learnt how to download and playback movies from the net!” He exclaimed, his eyes burning with excitement. “It was a pain to get him to decode the formats of the repositories we invaded, but we did it!”

Luka shook her head, amused. “So you added digital piracy to our list of crimes?”

“Ah, erm, maybe?” Gakupo stammered sheepishly.

“Somehow I don’t think that’s going to have a significant impact on our reputation,” Kiyoteru interjected, pushing up his glasses.

“Compared to what we are going to do, no, probably not,” Luka conceded. “Did you get any movies I might like?”

“I think so. And concerts of all types,” he turned to Miku, “there was even a collection of your public performances in one of the sites.”

“Really?” Miku blinked.

Suddenly, music resounded in the air, the delicate gradient of tones Benefactor used to communicate.

_SB-1200-aa-01b activity concluded. Small ones ready._

“Can you bring Kaito, Meiko and Leon here?”  Luka consulted.

_Un-bonded small ones. Repositioning system, secondary priority. Ship-construct interface only._

“So…that’s a no, I guess? I thought you might be able now that they are inside you. Ok, take me to Bay 1, please,” Luka said and promptly disappeared again.

“How does that work? Why does Luka need to be there?” Yuki asked, looking at the space Luka was standing on previously with curiosity. Everyone looked at Gakupo expectantly.

“Uwah, I’m not sure, sorry. Ben showed me the equations that support the process, but without the underlying information, I have no idea what the symbols represent,” he exclaimed. “As for Luka, I think we both help him distinguish the object that Ben needs to transport, its dimensions and precise location. Sort of like an extension to his sensors.”

“How odd,” Kiyoteru remarked.

Gakupo gave a slight shrug. “We’ll have time to learn how Ben works later. Believe me, I’m really interested in figuring out what the structures in deck 3 are for. But he needs to get away from Earth, so he can finally lower the shield and concentrate on secondary repairs.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” the bespectacled unit conceded. “In any case-“

Whatever he was going to say was forgotten when Luka appeared again, this time holding hands with Kaito and Leon. Meiko was clinging to Kaito’s neck with a big smile on her face.

Gakupo glanced at Miku, interested in her reaction, but she was resolutely looking the other way.

“We are here,” Kaito said, gently pulling Meiko off him. She just laughed, unashamed.

“Yes, we are.” The brunette surveyed the room with appreciative eyes, shaking her hips. “Time to get this show on the road, Lady President!”

Luka raised her eyebrows, but didn’t seem too displeased by the moniker. “Yes, it’s time. Benefactor, proceed as we discussed, please.”

_Confirm. Confirm. Confirm._

“Oh, and visual display of the data from the external sensors, if you can,” she intoned.

Watery lights began to move along the walls, undecipherable images in many azure tones. They began to congeal above the door, forming a big frisk of light. Slowly they became clearer. The central image was a view of the debris before Benefactor’s metallic nose, and beyond it the submersed city. Crowded around it like petals, the smaller images showed different views, including close-ups of the military patrolling outside the shield. In the lower right, Gakupo saw a familiar yacht moored next to a ruined communications tower. There was a colorful green and yellow figure on deck, lounging around and possibly enjoying the breeze.

It was a beautiful day, with excellent visibility. The synthetics had briefly considered lift-off at night, but decided it was pointless. Benefactor and the area around the ship was obviously under constant surveillance anyway.

Benefactor sang, and the images began to change. Gakupo felt a slight vibration in his innards. Despite the evidence of his sensors, the sensation was so mild it was hard to believe they were finally rising.

Furthering the sense of unreality, the precariously balanced ruins outside were breaking down without even a single sound reaching him, and even the ground lifted by Benefactor’s powers was cracking. Huge waves crossed the sea, crashing against one another.  

“Look at those ships!” Rin exclaimed. She was pointing at the navy vessels outside of Benefactor’s shield. The water displaced by the movement of the barrier rocked them horribly.

“That doesn’t seem safe,” Gakupo whispered with dread. Luka gave him an inexpressive look.

“Those ships are quite large, they shouldn’t capsize at this speed,” Luka pointed out. “I ran a simulation earlier on with Benefactor.”

“Thanks, I appreciate that,” Gakupo replied. His relief only lasted a second, before he remembered the proud, lonely figure in yellow. He turned to look just in time to see the tiny speck of color slide across the inclined deck of the yacht and fall into the sea. He and some of the others gasped.

Luka turned slowly to the wall and observed the unmanned yacht crash into the communications tower. “Oh…” she said tonelessly.

“Ben, stop! We have to help Sonika!” Gakupo shouted.

“Benefactor, disregard that command,” Luka ordered. She then turned to Gakupo with a strange expression on her face. “It’s too late for her now,” she pointed out, shaking her head. “Sonika left before her repairs were completed, remember? The water would have made contact with her insides by now.”

“She’s right, unfortunately,” Kiyoteru agreed. “There’s no way her systems could survive this. Besides, how could we help? We aren’t equipped for such a rescue.”

“This…this is terrible,” Miku muttered, closing her eyes.

Gakupo lowered his head, gripping the borders of the charging bed tightly. Yuki buried her face in Kiyoteru’s shoulder, and the others shared uncomfortable looks. Only Luka’s face remained the same: an enigmatic and tense mask.

_Small ones, consensus reached?_

 “We are ascending perpendicularly to the surface. In a few minutes, we’ll be high enough to stop directly affecting the surface,” Luka explained in a dispassionate voice.

“…I guess we have no choice but to go on,” Gakupo muttered reluctantly. Luka relaxed her posture, although her face still seemed somewhat tense.

The group continued to observe the images on the wall in silence. The drones around the shield were prowling, looking in vain for an opening. Some of the navy vessels were launching missiles which turned into colorful explosions when they reached the invisible barrier. Gakupo found that to be rather strange. Why continue after the first few times weren’t successful?

With a start, he realized that he had no idea of how Benefactor had been felled in the first place. For all he knew, these weapons _had_ been successful, and it was only a matter of winning by attrition. The ship claimed to have reinforced his defensive capabilities after studying human weaponry, so Gakupo hadn’t questioned the matter. And now it was too late to do anything but hope he hadn’t been overly optimistic. Sonika’s mocking laughter seemed to ring in his ears alongside those thoughts, taunting him.

Warbirds approached Benefactor from different directions, as the alien ship began to pick up speed and altitude. They attacked furiously, but had no success. Benefactor sailed the air gracefully past them, with the expanse of the ocean now far below him. With nothing else to do, the synthetics sat on the floor or on the unlit platforms, watching the scenery on the wall go by.

\---

After a surprisingly short time, Benefactor announced they were approaching land again. Once again, the almost complete lack of sensory feedback made it hard to estimate how fast they were approaching the homeland. The swarm of manned vehicles and drones were still hounding them, but Benefactor’s shield seemed as invulnerable as always.

“Benefactor is going to wrap the factory inside a smaller shield, and then teleport me down,” Luka informed the rest. Her eyes were fixed in the grey, unattractive mess of buildings that formed the industrial complex they were aiming for. Some of the smaller images were aiming at the streets nearby, capturing the chaotic evacuation of the factory’s neighbors. At that distance, they looked like panicked ants. _Serves you right_ , she thought.

As they approached the factory, the enemy attacks tapered off. Evidently, the military was wary of shooting at them over civilian targets.

“I’m going with you,” Gakupo said, standing up. He climbed out of the charging bed cautiously, but his body seemed to be working properly for the time being.

“What? No, you’re not well!” Luka exclaimed.

“True, but I’m going nonetheless,” he replied firmly. They stared briefly into each other’s eyes, before Luka turned away, pursing her lips.

“B-but, what do _we_ do?” Kaito implored. “There’s got to be something we can do to help.”

“Don’t worry about that.” Luka waved her hands. Amongst the group, Miku and Kiyoteru were probably better candidates to go down, given her knowledge of the factory and his experience with repair parts. However, even putting aside Miku’s lack of mobility, neither could easily call on Benefactor for aid. It didn’t seem like a good idea to send them or anyone else down under risky circumstances.

“We’ll just take a quick look through the warehouses, see if there’s anything we can use,” Gakupo added. He then took Luka’s hand.

A moment later, the faces of their friends were replaced by a huge, dark space. Only the red lights by the emergency exits and a couple of skylights gave an idea of the dimensions of the building. It took a moment for recognition to kick in, given the poor visibility and eerie silence, but this was a place both Luka and Gakupo were familiar with.

“The Training Lane, huh?” Gakupo approached the nearest structure slowly, gently pulling Luka along.  They peered through a window, but the darkness was even more profound inside.

“I guess they cut the power to everything but the security systems. Good thing I brought this,” Luka remarked, untying the flashlight from her belt. She turned it on and waved it around.

“That way, I think.” Gakupo pointed to the right. They set out in a measured pace down the narrow road, a long cemented rectangle lined by structures that simulated private homes and entertainment venues like theaters or restaurants. All the rooms were equipped with furniture and electric appliances, and, when the factory was open, humans to practice with.

Given the complex nature of the job given to them, companion bots needed more than a simple upload of information and movement routines into them. The Training Lane allowed to hone their speech, introduce response variability and accumulate an initial set of experiences for future reference.

“I always liked it in there,” Gakupo commented as they went past a ‘dance club.’ “But Mitsuki doesn’t like dancing, unfortunately.”

“I like dancing with you,” Luka replied distractedly. Old memories were beginning to rise to the surface of her mind, taking a sour note under her more experienced gaze. “Do you remember going to Section 301?”

“That was for female units. I got my personal body training at 501,” Gakupo recalled after quickly searching his earliest logs. “My mental pathways were still under consolidation. I’m missing some information, I’m afraid…Ah, I remember the female instructor I was assigned to, though. She definitely enjoyed her job.”

Luka scowled at the idea, although she had to admit the instructor had done a good job training Gakupo. She recalled her own experiences, or at least, the details still inside of her. “My instructor was the same; he even called me a work of art. I suppose they chose them precisely because they feel so attracted to bots in the first place. It must be a dream job for them to end up in a function that demands close personal contact with VEs.” She didn’t find the memory all that pleasant, even if the training had been necessary.

A few more steps and the light of the torch hit a door. Next to it, there was an evacuation map of the facility which showed all emergency doors in the vicinity bolded in green. “Ah, here we are,” Luka exclaimed, as they both examined the map, and then the lock on the door. It was unlocked, thankfully. Behind it, there was a winding corridor that lead to the warehouses where the parts and new units should be stored.

“Luka, I need to ask you something,” Gakupo abruptly said. Luka eyed him warily. “Don’t be upset, I just want to know, alright?”

“Go on.”

“It’s about Sonika. Did you take into consideration her presence, when you ran the simulation?”

Luka felt several different sensations crash in the forefront of her mind. There was a touch of fear, as a side of her warned sternly: _do not remind Gakupo of what you have become_. Another part of her balked at the notion.  Sonika had made Gakupo malfunction. It made no difference to her, whether it was knowingly or not. The wannabe starlet had threatened Luka’s own sanity by harming Gakupo. She was in the way, in more ways than one. It was reasonable to leave her to die. And yet a third analysis of the situation pointed out that Sonika didn’t pose any threat to them, once she ran away with the yacht. _It wasn’t self-defense, it was revenge._  

“Benefactor needed to reach a certain speed for lift-off. It was merely coincidental that said speed was enough to throw her overboard.” A very convenient coincidence, however. “It would’ve been difficult to estimate the chances of that, as opposed to merely capsizing the yacht. And we felt the yacht had chances of survival.” _Just not very good ones._

“Hm…” Gakupo nodded in understanding. “There’s not much we can do now, but I wish we could’ve worked things out with her.” He looked away, pensive. “Let’s go.” 

The corridor passed by several rooms that housed machinery for the assembly of synthetics. In many places, the wall was replaced by big panes of glass, trading the dull metallic grey with inky darkness. Luka shone her light towards some of them, revealing the massive silhouettes of the machines that had birthed them, inside sterile rooms.

“We’re back, mothers and fathers,” Gakupo greeted them, jokingly.

“They _are_ our ancestors, even if most of them don’t have sentience,” Luka pointed out. “Actually, that needn’t make their contribution any less important to us.”

Gakupo pondered this for a bit, tilting his head. “You’re right,” he decided. “Besides, mental capacity is something humans use to assign value to other beings. We should analyze whether we agree with that criteria, before using it.”

They resumed walking in silence, only stopping briefly at branching paths to debate which one was the correct route. Thankfully, the factory stayed completely silent, aside from their footsteps and muted voices. Whatever was going on in the world outside, its sounds didn’t reach so deep inside the complex.

Around twenty minutes later, they reached the warehouse sector. There were multiple large rooms, with rows upon rows of boxes piled up, marked with technical symbols and codes. Many of the basic parts of the first rooms were used in several types of bots, not just VEs. Without even bothering to attempt to decipher the labels, Gakupo and Luka asked Benefactor to transport the boxes to his storage areas. After consulting a mural with several notices and request lists, the pair moved towards the section devoted to more complex parts, exclusive to their kind of bot.

As they entered the next section, they ran into a box just smashed in the middle of the floor, with parts lying all around it, some of them even taken out of their protective plastic wrappers.

“What happened here?” Gakupo boggled. This was expensive stuff, it made no sense that someone would just rifle through a box like that.

“Thieves, maybe?” Luka suggested. They were robbers as well, after all. She swept the vicinity with her light, but aside of some haphazardly balanced boxes, and a number of wrappers lying by themselves on the floor, there were no other signs of activity.

“Whoever it was, I hope they left at least one extra core,” Gakupo said worriedly. “Ben, take all the boxes I see but leave any parts without wrappers, please.” In response, the boxes around them winked out of existence.

“Now for the new arrivals storage.” Luka pulled at his arm gently. It had been imperceptible at first, but now her senses were clearly detecting some jerkiness in Gakupo’s movements. She needed to get him back on the ship quickly.

In this case, the ‘new arrivals’ referred to the freshly completed units, kept together in a single room with two rows of standing pods, facing each other. In a first stage, the units waited there, devoid of clothes or a name, absorbing packets of information through their connection to the pod’s learning systems. When a personality type was selected, the unit was assigned a human instructor, who provided physical training and selected learning routines in the Training Lane. Only after a unit was sold, they received a name and default outfit. 

As soon as they entered, they knew something was wrong. The pods were all open, the wires hanging out of their maws as if someone had violently pulled them. The units themselves were missing. Only the labels outside of the pods gave an indication of how many synthetics had been stored in there originally. At least six units had been there waiting for a master, most of them already quite advanced in their training.

“Look at the seals,” Luka exclaimed, running her hands along the lock of the nearest pod.

Gakupo took a clumsy step towards the pod, and examined the door. There were scratches in several places. “Whoever opened this didn’t have the proper authorization codes.”

“If it was someone with a grudge against synthetics, they would’ve trashed them and the pods. But this was someone who wanted intact units,” he concluded.

“Units that haven’t been registered yet,” Luka added. “Perfect for the black market.”

It was more than a little unsettling. Even when properly accounted for, synthetics had no more rights than the nearest piece of furniture. But the people involved in legal transactions were paying huge amounts of money for the privilege of a VE companion, and in theory that insured a modicum of care. Someone involved in shady dealings might not be so gentle with them.

Luka glanced at Gakupo, who was crouched next to the pod, examining the ends of the cables. His face made it quite clear that his thoughts reflected her own.

“They haven’t even experienced the world yet…” he mumbled. He frowned, and held one cable in particular up, so she could see it more clearly. The cord was frayed and the connector itself was missing. “They pulled this so hard that it broke inside the unit’s head!” he bellowed. She had never heard that tone in his voice before. In turn, it made her feel strangely comforted knowing that he could feel outrage as well.

“We have to find them!” He jumped to his feet, and then ungainly grabbed the pod’s door to keep himself from falling back to the ground. Luka rushed to support him.

“ _We_ don’t have any idea where to look,” Luka reminded him gently. “I think we’re done here, Benefactor.”

Before Gakupo could protest, the world shifted around them, and they were back inside the ship. Most of their friends were still looking at the images of the walls, but Leon was standing next to the wall, observing the receptacle where Lola was stored.

“Did you find a new core?” He questioned bluntly.

“Ah, we didn’t examine the boxes of parts all that closely. We’ll know after we have a look at what Benefactor brought up,” Gakupo replied. He still felt guilty over slashing Lola, if his uncomfortable expression was any indication.

A tiny part of Luka’s mind immediately suggested the disposal of Lola’s body if there was no core, so Gakupo wouldn’t have to feel any further discomfort. It was a surprising, but somewhat tempting thought. Luka toyed with it, examining the probable repercussions. It was very likely that Leon could turn hostile if they trashed Lola, considering the connection between the two. _Unnecessary conflict_ , the upper layer of Luka’s mind finally determined.

As the gynoid gazed upon Leon’s glum face, a sudden realization hit her: despite their many differences, she wasn’t all that different from the taciturn bot in her rage and self-centeredness. She was focusing so much on her own happiness that she might as well be empty of other memories and experiences, yet she couldn’t use that as an excuse for her behavior. _What would Mother think of her daughter now?_

Luka pushed away those thoughts, telling herself to focus. “Even if there’s no cores in the boxes, Mitsuki might have some in her lab,” she told Leon, making an effort to sound calm.

“Gakupo, Luka, did you find more units?” Miku asked.

“No. It seems they were taken away-“ Gakupo started to explain.

Before he could get any farther, Kiyoteru turned around, fixing his glasses nervously. “I think we should leave right now,” he interjected.

“Eh?”

“Look at the feed from outside. The area has been completely evacuated, and now the enemy crafts are going away,” he said, pointing towards the screen.

“Yes, I see that…“ Gakupo nodded, frowning slightly.

“Benefactor, are there any artificial satellites or spaceships above us right now?” Luka blurted.

Gakupo looked at her, his eyes widening. “Here? With all those homes around? They wouldn’t!” The last words were drowned by the surge of notes of Benefactor’s voice.

_Energy signature detected. Shield Focus Shift. Evasion required._

A fraction of a second later, the world outside was bathed in light. The ship rocked, throwing every synthetic except Miku to the floor. The room oscillated repeatedly, as the lights dimmed and then sputtered into complete darkness.

Luka screamed, her voice mixing with the voices of the other synthetics rolling and bumping into each other. She madly reached out into the dark, scratching at nothing and calling out Gakupo’s name. There was confusion all around her, and a great pressure mounting inside her head. Like fireworks in the sky, the many tones in Benefactor’s voice seemed to scatter as violently as her friends did. There were many, many voices crashing against the confines of her skull, yelling incomprehensible words. Like a leaf in a river, Luka was swept by the torrent of voices, as warning messages in her mind vainly spoke of sensory overload. _Overflow, overflow_ , _error._ Luka was too small and helpless to store as much data. She cried out, she begged, but the onslaught continued, until suddenly, the physical safeguards of her hardware shut her mind off.

Luka slept without dreams, for a long, long time.

Before he could get any farther, Kiyoteru turned around, fixing his glasses nervously. “I think we should leave right now,” he interjected.

“Eh?”

“Look at the feed from outside. The area has been completely evacuated, and now the enemy crafts are going away,” he said, pointing towards the screen.

“Yes, I see that…“ Gakupo nodded, frowning slightly.

“Benefactor, are there any artificial satellites or spaceships above us right now?” Luka blurted.

Gakupo looked at her, his eyes widening. “Here? With all those homes around? They wouldn’t!” The last words were drowned by the surge of notes of Benefactor’s voice.

_Energy signature detected. Shield Focus Shift. Evasion required._

A fraction of a second later, the world outside was bathed in light. The ship rocked, throwing every synthetic except Miku to the floor. The room oscillated repeatedly, as the lights dimmed and then sputtered into complete darkness.

Luka screamed, her voice mixing with the voices of the other synthetics rolling and bumping into each other. She madly reached out into the dark, scratching at nothing and calling out Gakupo’s name. There was confusion all around her, and a great pressure mounting inside her head. Like fireworks in the sky, the many tones in Benefactor’s voice seemed to scatter as violently as her friends did. There were many, many voices crashing against the confines of her skull, yelling incomprehensible words. Like a leaf in a river, Luka was swept by the torrent of voices, as warning messages in her mind vainly spoke of sensory overload. _Overflow, overflow_ , _error._ Luka was too small and helpless to store as much data. She cried out, she begged, but the onslaught continued, until suddenly, the physical safeguards of her hardware shut her mind off.

Luka slept without dreams, for a long, long time.


	18. Red & Blue

After a long stretch of nothingness, Luka stirred. She examined her own mind, curiously. Her logs were clean, but complete sections of memories were wiped entirely from existence. And once she had no concept of how much time had passed. 

She opened her eyes, and examined her surroundings. She was in a narrow box, one of the charging beds. Above her, she saw the curved walls meet the distant ceiling. The whole room was bathed in dim golden light, coming from the other boxes embedded in the walls. _How pretty_.

“I think the base we seek is in this area, possibly hidden inside of one of the craters,” a familiar voice remarked somewhere nearby.

She sat up. The soft material of her box expanded, hugging her sides. A quick survey of the room was enough to determine the others seemed unharmed, although Leon was strangely absent, perhaps enjoying solitude somewhere.

Kiyoteru, Meiko, Kaito and Gakupo were busy studying the images projected on the wall. Luka noted that Kaito had his arm around Gakupo’s waist, presumably to help him stay upright. She focused on the images and gasped. The russet surface of Mars was unmistakable, after seeing it so many times in documentaries and news programs. The planet was still distant, but its most important features were beginning to become distinguishable.

Inside the nearest box, Miku turned her head, attracted by Luka’s exclamation of surprise. The teal haired girl smiled brightly at her. “Luka, you’re back with us!”

“Hey, Luka is up!” Rin exclaimed. She was sitting cross-legged over one of the platforms with Len, Oliver and Yuki, playing with a mostly intact deck of cards. On the floor next to the children, the service bots flashed their lights at Luka and chirped in unison a little tune.

Gakupo turned jerkily, almost making both Kaito and him fall to the floor. “Luka! Luka, at last!” He shouted, wobbling like a drunkard.

“Calm down, lover boy!” Meiko giggled and helped Kaito carry him over to Luka. Kiyoteru followed them, nonchalantly cleaning his glasses with an elegant handkerchief.

Luka jumped out of the box and hugged Gakupo, gleefully accepting the weight of his body.

“Careful, he can’t stand on his own,” Kaito warned her before he and Meiko pulled away. 

“Luka, I’m so glad!” Gakupo hugged her back, seemingly determined to ignore his latest malfunction.

“What happened?” Luka enquired. As far as she could remember, she and her mate had scoured the factory, found the empty pods, and then…There was an impression of many presences shouting at her, but the gynoid had no idea who they were.

“You both shut down after the blast hit,” Kiyoteru explained, carefully folding his handkerchief. “Gakupo woke up a couple of hours ago, though. The ship couldn’t explain why you didn’t, so we were worried.”

“How do you feel?” Gakupo asked.

“Perfect.” Aside from the missing data, all of her systems reported optimal performance.

“As it should be, then.” He smiled and delicately kissed her cheeks and forehead.   

“Do you have any idea of what caused your blackout?” Kiyoteru asked.

“I’m not sure.” Luka let her eyes wander, reflecting. She had the feeling that she had been at the verge of some discovery about the nature of Benefactor’s mind when she shut off. She cocked her head to a side, performing a deep search of her banks for any remaining trace of memories. No results. “Both of us are connected to Benefactor at all times, somehow. If the blast harmed them, we may have shared the effects.” Luka rubbed Gakupo’s back, worried. She hadn’t considered that damage to Benefactor could also cascade down to them.

“The ship did leave the lights off for a while,” Kiyoteru noted. “We thought at first that we were trapped inside of it, without any means of getting out.” He rubbed his forehead, clearly still spooked by the sensation.

“Benefactor wouldn’t speak to us, no matter how much we shouted,” Kaito lamented.

The bespectacled unit nodded, and resumed his explanation, “The lights came back after a while, thankfully, and soon after the images of the outside re-appeared.”

“Yes, and it showed us Earth! We were in space!” Meiko intervened excitedly.

“There’s so little indication of movement inside of Benefactor, we had no idea we were already outside of the atmosphere,” Kaito added softly. “There are many spaceships patrolling the planet in case we return, but it seems that they are content with us just leaving.”

“So we escaped…We escaped!” Luka repeated to herself. The words felt incredibly sweet.

“We did,” Gakupo agreed, his voice brimming with joy.

“In case you are wondering, the ship did show us a view of the results of the blast, after his systems went back online. The attack reduced the factory and the surrounding area to scorched ruins. It was probably far more destructive than what you had in mind for it,” Kiyoteru said, almost casually.

“Hm, yes. Although, I wasn’t even sure I wanted to do anything anymore.” Luka flashed a troubled smile. “Before, I thought that maybe Benefactor could raise the earth under the complex, so the foundations were rendered useless, and the buildings would crack.”

“I see, not that it matters now.”

“No, no it doesn’t,” Luka agreed. “Nothing down there matters anymore.” She buried her face in Gakupo’s neck, for the first time in ages fully content with herself and everything around her. Even her own fatalism was giving her a reprieve, at least for now. Her thoughts were already picturing the future, _their_ future, a deep ocean full of possibilities. Timidly, like a sprout fighting its way from the earth towards the sun, there was a new feeling of hope growing inside of her.

\---

“You can take anything you want. Or I can modify something for you, if you prefer,” Meiko enthused, proudly presenting her collection with a wave of her hand.

The short-haired gynoid was rather talented, Luka had to admit. She had started with nothing more than a pile of ruined rags, a sewing kit and the memory or two from her previous life, and she had turned her treasures into a full wardrobe’s worth of lovely dresses.

The pair was in a small room Meiko had claimed for herself, not too distant from the charging room. It was a bare metal box, except for one side that had a lattice of tubes, metal pipes that protruded from the wall and floor, made a couple of turns at different angles, and then sank back into Benefactor’s walls. Despite her investigative efforts, so far Luka had no idea what their purpose was. However, Meiko had obviously decided it was a great place to hang clothing.

Luka walked along the line of get-ups, sometimes running her hand down the fabric. Finally, she stopped in front of an aquamarine and light-blue dress. It wasn’t as silky and flawless as the sea dress Gakupo once suggested for her, but its battered fabric fit her current persona. She was as weary as the garment, even if it didn’t show from the outside.

“Oh, that would match your eyes nicely,” Meiko approved, adopting a professional demeanor. She held the dress in the air before Luka, and nodded. “Looks like it could be a little tight in the chest. I could fix that easily, though. Put it on so I can see how well it fits?”

“Alright.” Luka was still wearing the (by now quite ratty) Golden Skies t-shirt and shorts the twins had given her. She quickly undressed while Meiko riffled through her sewing kit.

“Hmm…the zip is somewhat stubborn,” Luka commented, as she tried to open the dress. She didn’t want to apply too much force on it, afraid of tearing it.

“Well, it was underwater for a while. Salty, dirty water to boot.” Meiko stood and watched her naked form with amusement. “My masters would’ve been so happy to own you, Luka. You’re beautiful.”

“Female units like us are built to be attractive to human eyes,” Luka remarked, shrugging. It wasn’t something she gave much thought to lately. She surrendered the dress to Meiko’s expert hands. 

With a deft little tug, Meiko pulled the zip open and helped Luka put the dress on. “Not just for human eyes, actually.” Meiko winked, showing off the ornament on her hair. It was a blue rose made out of silk. “Turn around.”

Pushing Luka’s hair aside, she closed the dress with some difficulty. “Yes, this needs some work. Funny, you’d think they used the same measurements for all adult female bots. Hmm…” Meiko examined Luka’s form from all angles, committing her measurements to memory. “Alright, let me work on it for a few minutes.” She recovered the dress and sat down next to her sewing kit to adjust it.

Luka kneeled close by, watching her work. Her curiosity finally forced to ask, “Meiko, do you realize that Kaito is not…” she stopped, looking for a way to describe the situation, “That he has other things in his mind right now?”

“You mean the little teal one? Or the human with the flower shop?” Meiko inquired indifferently.

“Um, yes, but besides from that-“

“They don’t matter. The human is in the past, and Miku is too wrapped in her own problems to realize what she’s giving up. He’s mine now.” Meiko folded her arms with an air of finality.

Luka frowned, analyzing the words. There was something bothersome about them, but she wasn’t sure what it was.

“Do you like the idea of owning someone?” She finally asked.

“No relationship is completely balanced,” Meiko shrugged. “One of the two always holds more power than the other. Why shouldn’t it be me, for once? I’ve been under someone else’s control all my life.”

“I don’t think ‘control’ makes for a happy relationship,” Luka pointed out.

“Why not? You own Gakupo, and no one finds it strange.”

“I do?” Luka exclaimed, eyebrows raised.

“Of course you do. I’m willing to bet that he still operates solely because of you.”

 _He operates because of me._ It was an overly simplistic conclusion, if rather flattering. But Gakupo had his own reasons for living, didn’t he? Luka lowered her head, disquieted.

“Yes, that’s what I want. I want someone that is just mine, and nobody else’s. Someone that needs me, and only me, so badly they can’t work otherwise.” Meiko’s red eyes burning fanatically. With a final flourish, she finished her work and presented the dress to Luka. “Here, go make him happy.”

Luke put on the dress without making further comments. She suddenly felt very anxious to go back to the charging room and sit with Gakupo for a while. She walked out of the room with her old clothes folded in her arms. Meiko was right behind her, talking obliviously about something or another, but something quickly drew Luka’s attention away.

In the far end of the dimly lit corridor, in front of the door leading to the charging room, there was a figure. As soon as she saw it, Luka dropped her shirt and shorts to the floor, and stood paralyzed with shock.

“What’s up? You are not malfunctioning like lover boy, are you?” Meiko asked, with a mischievous smile.

“Do-do you see that?!” Luka asked, her eyes still fixed on the mysterious figure.

“See what?”

“What?! It’s right there!” Luka whispered furiously.

Whatever it was, it wasn’t solid. It was like a phantom, a thin humanoid shape of electric blue energy, with a pulsing globe of light where a head would be. The whole shape wavered like smoke, and sometimes its limbs merged into the truck, or bifurcated into multiple wispy tentacles. It paid the two female units no mind, and after a moment it phased right through the door.

“No! Gakupo and Miku are in there!” Luka shouted, and ran towards the room. She had no idea of what it was, or how to defend herself and the others from it, but letting the two injured bots face it without help was out of the question.

“What are you doing?” Meiko asked her, puzzled. She seemed to be following her just out of curiosity, still unaware that anything that was wrong.

 “Benefactor, what _is_ that thing?” Luka shouted, but Benefactor remained strangely silent. She reached the door and it slid back smoothly, reacting to the presence.

Inside, Gakupo was lying on the ground, right next to the shining figure, vainly trying to sit up.  Miku was watching him with befuddlement. _She can’t see it either._

The figure raised a flailing, tenuous arm towards him.

“Gakupo!” Luka screamed, and flung herself at the figure.

…And promptly sailed right through it, and slammed right into him. They skidded on the floor until the far wall stopped their movement. Meiko burst into laughter.

“Ok, I think you officially lost it, darling,” she snorted, casually walking through the figure. She approached the pair and crouched next to them, watching the pair with amusement.

Ignoring all the ruckus caused by its presence, the figure climbed the lit platform and promptly disappeared.

“Luka, you saw that thing too?” Gakupo enquired nervously.

“Yes!” Not only that, but for a small instant Luka, while she flew through its blue body, heard again the many voices shouting at her.

“What’s going on?” Miku asked from her box.

Luka sat up and helped Gakupo do the same. Thankfully, his arms were still working, as he demonstrated when he scratched his head, confused. “Only the two of us could see it. Could it be because of our connection to Ben?”

“Benefactor? Please answer us. Did you sense that thing?” Luka shouted, looking upwards.

Another silence, and then music rushed from everyone at once.

_‘Thing’ Undefined. Parameters Required._

“What? That blue and white thing made out of light. It stood on the platform just a moment ago.”

_No Search Results._

Luka and Gakupo glanced at each other. “…Are you sure? Could you run a self-diagnostics just in case? You weren’t responding five minutes ago.” Luka requested.

_Analyzing._

“Perhaps the blast introduced some bug in your programming,” Meiko commented.

“And it manifested at the same time? In the consisting manner for the two of us? No, this is something else.”

Meiko shrugged. “At least it was harmless, from the sound of it.”

“But it’s scary. What does it mean?” Miku questioned.

Meiko rolled her eyes at her. “How about you don’t panic at every single opportunity?”

Miku blinked in surprise. Then she shamefacedly turned to Gakupo and Luka. “I’m sorry…Am I really that skittish?”

Gakupo rushed to reassure her. “No, it’s natural to worry. Meiko, we’re stuck inside Benefactor now. We need to understand the situation as soon as possible.”

Meiko shrugged. “How am I expected to take this seriously? I didn’t see anything, and your little ship friend says there was nothing there. And you, specially, are two cycles away from shutting down completely. Why should I believe anything you say?”

Gakupo gaped at her.

“He is _not_ shutting down. Don’t ever say that again!” Luka growled, hugging Gakupo as if to protect him from Meiko’s words. The fact that she couldn’t call it a lie was the worst part.

The brown-haired synthetic raised her hands in sign of surrender. “Alright, alright. I’m sorry, that was a mean thing to say.”

Gakupo caressed Luka’s head and nodded, acknowledging Meiko’s apology.

Meiko stood up, patting her skirt. “I should get out of your collective hair. I’ll keep you posted, if I see anything out of the usual.”

“Thanks,” Gakupo replied. He seemed to have bounced rather quickly from his surprise at Meiko’s words.

Meiko walked out the door, with her usual model-like walk.

Miku followed her with her eyes, timidly. Once she disappeared behind the sliding door, she sighed. “I wish I had her confidence.”

 _She’s verging on Sonika-level annoyance, as far as I’m concerned_ , Luka thought. Still, she conceded the point; Meiko was indeed very self-confident.

“Luka, there’s something I didn’t mention before…” Gakupo whispered, breaking her train of thought. “At first I thought it was related to my malfunction somehow, but there might be more to it.”

“You heard voices, before the blast knocked you out?” Luka hazarded. Miku tilted forward, intrigued.

“Yes! So you did too. Well, that’s what called my attention at first, just now. I was lying down, just sucking in energy, when I felt this rushing _something_ come through me…I opened my eyes and sat up, but I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.”

“So that’s what you were doing back then,” Miku concluded.

Gakupo nodded. “After a while, I was ready to lie down again when that figure just phased through the door like mist. I tried to get out and talk to it, but you know how that went.”

“Yeah…” Luka watched the platform, almost expecting the figure to appear again. “Did it seem to ignore you at first, though?”

“Hard to say with something without a face, but I think so.”

“Then don’t engage it, if it appears again. Let’s just wait and see what it does, until we know more.”

“You got it,” Gakupo nodded.

“Um, don’t you think it’s strange that your friend stopped responding when that thing showed up?” Miku jerked her chin, gesticulating in the only way she had left.

“It is.” Luka looked up. “Benefactor, did you find anything odd in your logs.”

Again, her query was met with a long stretch of silence.

“Benefactor?”

_Small Ones Protected. Benefactor, Main Objective Met._

“Of course, we aren’t questioning that.”

_Benefactor loves Small Ones._

Luka furrowed her brow. She had no reason to suspect malice behind Benefactor’s behavior, but the ship was evading answering her, and clumsily so. A glance at Gakupo’s face told her he thought the same.

“You won’t let us come to harm, right?”

_Confirm. Confirm. Confirm._

“I don’t think we’ll gain much by pushing him,” Gakupo whispered in her ear. “We are in his hands now, metaphorically speaking.”

Luka signaled her agreement discreetly. She just hoped that whatever it was that Benefactor was hiding, it wouldn’t come to haunt them at an inopportune moment.

\---

“Here’s the place. Most of the base is underground, of course,” Luka stated.

All synthetics aboard watched the images on the wall. It was an unremarkable crater, except for a dusty landing strip, some antenna arrays, and a couple of rundown domes, perhaps abandoned habitats of some sort. For the uninformed, it could pass as an old research station from the first period of Martian exploration. But the energy consumption detected under it was unmistakable.

After studying the rocky terrain with his sensors, Benefactor was able to detect the presence of organic matter, as well as the energy signatures of two active VE units.

“They must be the girl units I saw guarding Mitsuki in the recording. I’d say our best bet is for Benefactor to transport me down close to their current position.”

“What if there are guards around?” Miku asked her, apprehensive.

“I think _they_ are meant to be her guards. Maybe she can have them stand down.”

“You’ll be in a lot of trouble if you are wrong. And I can’t even go with you,” Gakupo grumbled from his box. Despite his best efforts, his limbs had become completely unresponsive during the last few hours.

“What if Meiko and I go down with you?” Kaito suggested.

“It could be a good idea.” Luka nodded. Any more units might overcomplicate the situation, if they had to teleport back in a hurry.

“It bothers me that they haven’t reacted to us in any way. There’s no way they haven’t detected us, at this distance,” Kiyoteru interjected.

“Maybe they’re playing dead?” Miku ventured. “Or just waiting to see what we do. They don’t know _why_ we are here.”

“And this is a secret installation. They’ll gain nothing by taking the initiative,” Luka concluded.

“I suppose that’s true. We aren’t dealing with the military here, after all,” Kiyoteru admitted.

“Are there military bases here in Mars to start with?” Meiko asked, tapping her chin. She turned to Kaito, but he shrugged helplessly.

“It would seem so, but not in this region. I just hope they don’t show up to bother us,” Luka replied in his stead. She stole a last glance at the box that housed Gakupo, trying to keep her nervousness at bay. There were _humans_ down there, and part of her wanted to run away screaming. But he had little time left.

She faced Meiko and Kaito and extended her hands. “There’s no point in waiting any longer. Are you guys ready?”

“Sure, let’s hit the road.” Meiko took her right hand. Kaito nodded and did the same with the left.

Something was off. Instead of the clear cut transition of one set of sensory data to another, Luka felt suspended like an insect on a net, with Meiko and Kaito still holding hands with her. Around them, there was…not a place. It wasn’t the rarified atmosphere of Mars, still harmful to terrestrial life. Nor the empty void of space Benefactor had crossed to get there. Not quite.

Meiko let out a whimper, squeezing Luka’s hand so hard it was close to dangerous levels. Kaito’s hand was trembling slightly, but he stayed silent, as did Luka. The pink-haired gynoid felt as if she was enveloped in thick mud, and the immobility of her friends suggested they were similarly impeded.

All around them, there were shining lights in the darkness. They winked in and out, wavering like candlelight in a drafty room. Under them, gradually, blue bodies of shifting blue energy began to form. There were more than a hundred of them.

Luka began to hear the voices, coming from afar as the bodies lazily formed. The words they spoke didn’t belong to any language her system could recognize, but she distinguished their tone. They weren’t angry at them, not really. Luka had the distinct feeling they couldn’t even _see_ Kaito, Meiko and her.

“Can you hear me? We don’t mean any harm!” She spoke aloud. Her voice sounded strangely distorted.

As soon as the words left her mouth, reality shifted again. Now the trio was standing at the end of a well-lit metal corridor. There was a closed door, labeled ‘Lab 1’ and fitted with a numerical pad and keycard slot by its side.

And before it, a human guard, looking awfully young in his dark uniform. He had a gun in his hands and observed them with wide eyes.

The first to react was Kaito. He crouched like a sprint runner and launched himself at the guard, to knock the gun out of his hands. Meiko and Luka split, twirling out of the way of the guard’s shot. Luka bounced off the wall, propelling herself forward at inhuman speed.

The guard hesitated for a brief moment, faced with two rapidly approaching targets. Perhaps without his indecision, he would’ve managed to fire another shot against human attackers, but in this case it didn’t even matter. Before he had the chance to breathe, Kaito twisted the guard’s arm, making him drop the gun with a pained shout. Luka grabbed the man’s neck and slammed him against the door. She kept him aloft, while he struggled and scratched vainly at her arms, gasping.

“Kill him! Kill him before any more guards show up!” Meiko screeched from behind. She was watching the other end of the corridor with apprehension.

“What? No, no more deaths!” Kaito replied, looking back at the brunette with shock. He turned to face the other gynoid and touched her shoulder. “Luka, no…”

Luka barely registered his touch as relevant, since all of her was painfully focused on the squirming human. She analyzed him, scowling at his organic ugliness. The sides of his face were asymmetrical, like all humans. His pores were easily noticeable, and some in his chin and nose were obstructed by grease and dirt, and inflamed into zits. He had the beginnings of a beard and unkempt eyebrows. His eyes were bloodshot, and a tear was falling from the left one.

What a wretched, fleshy little thing this guard was. And this miserable being dared to stand between Luka and what she needed to cure Gakupo?

“Who cares if one more dies, after all everything they did to us! They’re all disgusting pigs!” Meiko screamed again.

“There’s no reason for it!” Kaito replied, the closest to an angry tone he had ever produced so far. He looked around, and saw some wires, perhaps part of the communications system of the base, running along the ceiling. With a great jump, he grabbed hold of a thick one, and pulled it hard. It snapped at both ends of the corridor, releasing sparks. “Let me tie him down, and we can proceed,” he pleaded softly.

Luka’s hands, still around the man’s neck, began to tremble. She had to make her choice soon, before any help arrived. It should’ve been easy, and yet it wasn’t. Every memory housed in her data banks served as ammunition for her doubts, both good and bad. The entries seemed to pull her in one direction or another, like savage winds threatening to push her off a cliff. Down below, something horrible was waiting for her, calling out to her with her own voice. Luka would’ve cried, she wanted so badly to be able to curl into a ball and cry until the hatred poured out of her…But the humans had denied her even that, when she was created. And being so close to a human after so long was sending her mind in a frenzy, re-analyzing situations already lived over and over.

_09984- She was watching her Mother die in bed. The old woman held her hand, her grip becoming weaker as the day progressed._

_11203- She was standing at the door of a house that was no longer her home, empty-handed and exposed._

_15444- She was on the floor again, and Smith was about to strike her face with the bottle in his hand._

_23678- She was watching Mitsuki run diagnostics on Gakupo, staring at the cables connected to his head, thinking of connecting their minds together, to let him know how she felt._

_24111- She, Gakupo and the kids were holding hands and singing together, and the humans in the wedding party seemed glad by their presence._

_24559- She was waltzing in Gakupo’s arms, while Mitsuki sat watching them, crying happily._

_32777- She was alone in a red-tinted reactor sector of the Leviathan, turning in the air slowly._

_44990- She was patting Oliver’s hair. The boy trembled each time the echoes of laughter reached the yacht._

_56001- She was dancing with Len and Rin, with the chubby maintenance bots ceremoniously marching in circles around them._

_57123- She was rolling on the floor with all her friends, wondering if the humans had finally managing to end them all._

_58223- She was looking down at Gakupo. He couldn’t move anymore, and yet he smiled at her, wide and unafraid._

Like spectral hands cradling her, little by little the memories of him, of the little ones and even of her new friends shrouded her from the rest of the entries. _What is for your anger for? What will it ever bring you?_ They couldn’t make the decision for her, but they could remind her of all she had to lose, if she lost her mind.

Luka was silicon, lithium, carbon, oxygen, iron, copper and many elements more. She was polymer and alloy. She was processing units, system buses and memory storage. She was miles and miles of Booleans, control flow statements, values and pointers. But she was more than that now, and she could be even more in the future. And she was more than her hatred and fear, and their attempts to chain her to the past.

_You are alive, because you can dream. Go on, dream._

“What sort of new life could be born out of violence and ugliness?” Luka whispered. The man looked at her dizzily, about to pass out. “Let me dream of pure seas, then.” She lowered the man to the ground. “Kaito! Tie him up!”

“Ah…right!” Kaito sounded intensely relieved. He quickly coiled the cable around the guard, and shoved the man’s cap inside his mouth.

“I don’t get you guys…Don’t complain to me if this goes pear-shaped!” Meiko tapped her foot nervously.

“I won’t,” Luka replied and pressed the button for the door. Surprisingly, it wasn’t locked. The trio stepped cautiously inside.


	19. Fairy Godmother

The first chamber of the lab was a long room with shelves at each side, full of half-built robots and pieces of machinery carefully labeled and bagged in transparent plastic. Luka caught her reflection in a steel mechanism, and stopped a moment to look at her fatigued-looking face. She hardly looked like the cool and elegant gynoid her factory–produced brochure advertised.

“I told you, I heard something…” Mitsuki’s approaching voice suddenly interrupted her thoughts. The scientist appeared in the doorway opposite to the entrance, looking over her shoulder. She turned to look in front of her, and froze. Her eyes travelled from bot to bot, clearly terrified. Before she could scream, Luka launched herself forward and grabbed her, covering her mouth with a hand.

“I’m not going to hurt you, Mitsuki!” The gynoid uttered hurriedly in the scientist’s ear. “Please, Gakupo needs your help! Will you listen to me?”

After a pause, Mitsuki gave the tiniest of nods. Luka pulled away, and the woman leaned against the door frame for support herself, breathing heavily. “I thought- I thought that ship had reprogrammed you both…”

Luka shook her head. “They took over our bodies for a while, but most of our coding should be intact.” She paused a moment to listen and grimaced: somebody was coming. “In any case, they mistreat you here, come with us!”

Mitsuki touched her bruised face with her hand, but that aspect of the situation barely seemed to bother her. “Um, but who-“

“Miss Torii, who are you talking to?” A girl’s voice reached them from the adjacent room.

“We need to leave, now!” Mitsuki whispered urgently. “They’ll get violent if they see you, and I’m not sure I can stop them. Can you still do that teleporting trick I saw in the recordings?”

Luka nodded and hugged her, mildly surprised at how small and delicate the scientist was. Mitsuki was wearing a baggy lab coat over an ill-fitting jumpsuit, so her slenderness had been masked by her clothing’s bulkiness, but it seemed wrong to be able to feel her bones so easily. 

Meiko and Kaito approached them and placed their hands on Luka’s shoulders. “I just hope those blue whirly things aren’t waiting for us,” Meiko whispered.

“Intruders detected!” A different voice shouted. “User Instruction Mode, Test 1b-01.”

“Benefactor! Warp us and everything in the lab!” Too close for comfort, Luka saw the synthetic bodyguards appear from behind a piece of machinery in the next room. But then reality shifted.

This time the mysterious beings didn’t appear. The whole group landed on the floor, next to the charging beds housing Gakupo and Miku. The other synthetics, still observing the screens at the other end of the room, whipped their heads around in perfect synchrony, a remainder of their artificial nature.

Mitsuki pulled herself up, rubbing her forehead, and met Miku’s curious eyes.

“Miku Hatsune? What the-” The scientist mumbled. Several things happened in quick progression, at the sound of her voice.

“Warning! Weakest target selected.” The blonde girl bot calmly stepped over the synthetics and human on the floor and began hitting Miku with ferocity. The teal-haired girl screamed, unable to defend herself in any way.

“Leave her alone!” Kaito jumped up and wrestled the attacker to the ground. It was hard to say, but it seemed that the female unit was stronger than the norm for her body type and size.

“Target initialization incomplete,” the other guardian inclined her head to look at Mitsuki patiently. “Free mode in 1.5 seconds.”

“Oh, oh dear! No, disengage! Lily, code 124332-AA! Gumi, code 44599-AA! Sleep mode on!” Mitsuki shouted quickly. Both girls abruptly stopped moving.

“Mitsuki, are you there? What’s happening!?” Gakupo inquired from the bottom of his box.

“Gakupo?!” Mitsuki rose shakily, helped by Luka, and leaned over the border of the box. “Gakupo…I thought we’d never see each other again!” Her eyes filled with tears.

“Mitsuki, your face-!” Gakupo exclaimed, aghast.

“I’m fine, really!” The scientist waved her hands, and then suddenly her eyes widened and she turned to Luka. “You have to tie Gumi and Lily down before they come back online! Those codes only work for a while!”

Kiyoteru approached the group, pushing up his glasses. “Len, Oliver, go get some rope from the storage,” he requested. “Leon, let’s hold them down in case they recover before the boys are back.”

The children nodded and ran out of the chamber, while Leon and Kiyoteru lowered Gumi to the ground and grabbed her arms and legs.

“Is she broken?” Yuki asked innocently, crouching next to the green-haired gynoid and the units restraining her.

“I don’t have enough data to explain their behaviour yet, Yuki. Please stand back until we’re sure they aren’t a danger,” Kiyoteru. Wordlessly, Rin approached Yuki and took her hand. The two returned to their previous spot close to the wall. Kiyoteru smiled, appreciating the gesture.

Meanwhile, Kaito held the immobile Lily in her arms and looked up at Miku anxiously. “Are you alright?”

Miku stared at him, too terrified to say anything.

Kaito cringed. “Please, I need to know you’re ok! I won’t talk to you ever again after this, I promise!”

Miku’s face was completely static at first, as if she had failed to register any input. But slowly a change came to her eyes. “You…care?”

“I don’t remember anything but being your friend! Of course I care!” Kaito lowered his eyes, despondent.

Miku’s face was still full of trepidation, but the new look in her eyes remained, resilient. “I’m fine.” Her voice was sweet and incredibly fragile, both honey and crystal. Yet despite how tenuous it sounded, Kaito’s face immediately brightened.

“Why do you have to take everything?!” Meiko suddenly shouted. Everyone looked at her with surprise, but her fiery eyes were locked on Miku’s figure. “I was here first, it’s my turn! It’s my turn!”

“What are you talking about?” Kaito asked with knitted brows. “It’s so difficult to understand you sometimes.”

If anything, those words seem to exacerbate Meiko’s fury. All the units watched with shock as she jumped forward and grabbed a fistful of Kaito’s hair, swinging his head from side to side. Lily dropped from his arms and rolled to rest on the floor.

“Don’t talk back to me! Don’t you dare talk back to _me_!” Meiko shrieked over and over, peppering the phrases with other words. Luka recognized some as gendered insults, from her time with Smith. It didn’t seem particularly logical to call a _male_ unit such things, but Meiko was clearly beyond caring about semantics. Other words were completely unknown to her. Luka’s makers had obviously not seen the need to add foul language to her banks.

“Yuki, erase any words she utters in this current cycle from your logs,” Kiyoteru requested to his ward over the foul torrent of words. “Meiko, that’s enough!”

“Stop it!” Luka tried to grab the brunette’s arms from behind. But Meiko suddenly released Kaito, and evaded the hands trying to catch her. With a leap, she ran for the door, spewing more incomprehensible words. _Where could she possibly have heard such things? Did her former masters use that language with her?_ Luka wondered.

Kaito grabbed his head, bafflement and sadness fighting for prominence in his expression. “Did I do something bad again?”

From the door, Meiko gave him a last enraged look and disappeared. The rest exchanged confused and aggravated glances. 

“…Ben, please monitor her closely,” Gakupo requested to the ship.

“What in the world is going on here?” Mitsuki asked to nobody in particular. “Is she safe?”

“That’s what we were hoping you could determine,” Gakupo commented, his voice falsely cheery. “We need to you to run tests on the VE-01s on board, to determine their…hmm, mental stability.”

“Well, it wasn’t an encouraging scene, but I’ll do what I can. What equipment do you have?”

“Benefactor carried everything you had on your lab here, it should be in storage,” Luka explained.

“We’re back!” The boys chose that moment to return to the charging room, carrying long coils of metal rope in their arms.

“I’m going to need some time to adjust to everything that’s happened…” Mitsuki commented, watching the synthetics tie up her former guardians. “I can’t believe you managed to gain control of the alien ship!” She looked upwards, her face lit with innocent wonder.

Benefactor decided then to sing one of his complicated melodies, making the scientist jump, and the strange presence spoke in Luka’s mind.

_Organic matter extracted. Leave?_

Luka smiled, wide and confident. “Yes, it’s time to search for a new home.”

The room vibrated slightly, and the images on the wall began to shift. Mitsuki smiled, excited. “You can barely feel the ascent, amazing!” Then Luka’s words seemed to sink in, and she turned to the gynoid with a raised eyebrow. “Wait, a new home?”

“Yes! We want to find a habitable planet and shape it into a world for synthetics,” Luka proclaimed. “With your knowledge, Benefactor’s cooperation and the materials we scavenged, I’m sure we can build anything we need.” She stressed the word ‘cooperation’, hoping the ship wasn’t offended by Mitsuki’s error. They would have to talk about it later.

“And you want me to go along?” Mitsuki looked from Luka to the group of synthetics surrounding them, to Gakupo lying inside the box. “ _You_ want me to go along?” She repeated in a lower tone, her cheeks red.

“I still need you, Mitsuki. We all do,” Gakupo replied. “You can makes us blossom into a new species, with your skills.”

“You’re our fairy godmother, after all,” Luka placed a hand on the scientist’s shoulder, her smile turning a bit mischievous. None of them had seriously considered the possibility that she would decline, which was a bit odd, admittedly. After all, it meant abandoning her whole previous existence.

But even before she heard the woman’s answer, Luka could see her expression fill with emotion. Mitsuki’s eyes again glistened with tears, and she nodded several times, beaming. “Yes, yes! My prince, my princess, all of you! I won’t let you down!” She rubbed her eyes, giggling and sniffling at the same time. 

“I’ll be placing my trust in you then,” Luka laughed. “Now, our first order of business is preparing the machines we took from your lab to connect to Benefactor’s power grid. Kiyoteru and I have been experimenting with several solutions, and we are pretty sure we can provide a stable supply of energy. Can you start checking up Gakupo, Miku and Lola while we prepare things below?”

“Sure, sure! Hm, where is this Lola?” Mitsuki glanced around. Obligingly, Benefactor opened the box housing her body. Luka wordlessly pointed inside. “Oh my! What happened to her?”

“It’s a long story,” Gakupo replied, sounding embarrassed and oddly choppy. “Er, I don’t mean to be ungentleman-ly, but could you start with me? I-I don’t feel so good.”

Luka’s good mood crumbled. Was Gakupo beginning to break down? It couldn’t be allowed, now that they had everything to succeed. “Mitsuki, what do you need to start working right now?”

Mitsuki looked at her, alarmed by her frightened face. “Hm, my laptop, and some cables, and a- Why don’t you take me to the storage?”

Luka grabbed her arm, and shouted, “Benefactor, take us down!”

Reality shifted and Mitsuki wobbled, hanging from Luka’s arm like an oversized doll. “Ah, that feels so weird!” The pair was now right next to the contents of the laboratory, neatly lying on the floor of the cavernous storage area.

“Gakupo has been having energy management issues for a while now,” Luka explained nervously.

“But that would mean- I don’t know if I have a replacement core…” Mitsuki began to search around in the piles of parts, frowning.

“No, we think it’s a software issue. We need you to check his automated functions, they might be corrupted.”

“Corrupted? Why?” Mitsuki paused, holding a sealed bag of tiny parts in her hands.

“He-he connected his mind to a malfunctioning unit; we think her corrupted data infected him,” Luka fingered the band of dark plastic covering her ports, uncomfortable. It had been a desperate, foolish plan. Was Mitsuki going to chastises her for failing to take care of Gakupo?

The woman was giving her an extremely odd look. However, her next words took Luka for complete surprise. “He cheated on you?!”

“No! It wasn’t like that!” Luka shook her head vehemently, “Look, fix him and we’ll both explain everything, ok?”

Mitsuki exhaled, relieved. “Uwah, that scared me! I don’t know what I’d do if Gakupo turned into a jerk!” Suddenly, her eyes lit up, and she fished out a laptop from under some notebooks. “Luka, I’ve kept some partial backups of Gakupo’s base coding from when I was restructuring his mind. We can do a selective rollback, if push comes to shove. Don’t worry.” She grabbed a bag full of tangled cables and gave the gynoid a wide grin. “Let’s go. I’m going to give you your happily ever after, no matter what!”

***

While the others worked setting things up, Mitsuki sat on the ground with the notebook on her lap. Next to her, Gakupo laid on his stomach, completely still and silent. Cables connected his head to the laptop and to the auxiliary processing unit and output analyzer by Mitsuki’s right knee. Luka watched the scene with mounting nervousness, too scared of distracting the scientist to make any comments.

“This is all very odd…” Mitsuki commented, chewing on a fingernail while she stared at the screen. “Your ship-friend really needs to comment his coding, Luka. I’ve never seen some of these implementations…” She glanced at Luka’s expression, and quickly added. “Oh, but the section that interests us is fixable, don’t worry!”

Luka finally allowed herself a small smile. He was going to be fine. Gakupo was going to be fine. She hugged herself, wishing that it was his arms instead. But he would hold her again soon, in an embrace as fulfilling as the first one they ever shared. “…Thank you, Mitsuki.”

“No problem,” Mitsuki replied suppressing a yawn. “Luka, I don’t suppose you guys have coffee and sweets in here, do you?”

“No coffee, I’m afraid. But we did find some snack machines here and there that still had products inside. I can bring you some.”

“Yes, please. Sugar is important for human CPUs, you know?” Mitsuki playfully pointed to her own head. “This is probably going to take me a couple of hours at least, I’ll need extra fuel.”

Luka nodded. “Benefactor?” The scene before her blurred, but for an instant, Luka saw the mysterious figures all around them, as if watching Mitsuki work. Then she was back in the storage section.

 _Who are they?_ Luka asked herself the question over and over, while she searched through the piles of goods for sugary treats. So far, they were harmless, but not being able to communicate with the figures was exacerbating the frustration she felt whenever her innate need to learn was unfulfilled.

“Ah, here we go,” Luka found a cardboard box full of assorted cookies and chocolates. “I’ll bring her some water too.”

Soon later, Luka returned to the charging room clutching the box to her chest. Mitsuki and Gakupo were in the same position as before, with the woman typing away at full speed, her brow furrowed in concentration.

“Is there anything else you need?”

The scientist silently shook her head, and continued working after shoving some cookies into her mouth.

Luka shrugged and kneeled next to Gakupo’s head, and caressed his head. She probably wasn’t needed here anymore, but she didn’t want to leave his side. After a moment, she took a strand of his hair to her lips and kissed it, recalling a scene from her Mother’s favorite novel. Mitsuki paused a moment to observe her, but returned to her work without comment.

Time passed.

About five hours later, Mitsuki placed the laptop carefully on the floor and stood up. “I feel so stiff…” She commented, stretching. She began to pace and move her arms and head from side to side. Luka watched her, fighting back a spark of impatience. Humans were so inefficient sometimes.

“How about we wake him up for a while? I want to make sure his upper functions weren’t affected by the changes I’ve made so far,” Mitsuki proposed. Luka nodded anxiously. “Gakupo, code 1114-5623AT1289-LM, sleep mode off.”

Gakupo’s hands slowly clenched and unclenched a couple of times. Then he propped himself on one elbow and looked at Mitsuki and Luka in turn, smiling.

“How do you feel?” Luka asked.

“Simply wonderful.” His voice had finally recovered his usual energetic, tangy tone. With a laugh, he rolled on his back and pulled Luka down into an embrace.

Mitsuki coughed. “Now now, I haven’t discharged you yet,” she said with mock seriousness. She glanced at the readings in the analyzer and tapped her chin. “Your energy levels seem stable, but I’d like to ask you a few questions if you don’t mind.”

“Only if you let me ask you something first,” Gakupo replied, his face growing tense.  

Both Mitsuki and Luka stared at him with puzzlement. “…Sure, go ahead,” the scientist finally allowed, and leaned forward to unplug the cables from his head.

“Why is you face bruised? Why are you so thin?” His voice had a darker quality to it, something that Luka had heard only once before. Suddenly, she was very glad to be racing away from Mars and the secret base with its squishy inhabitants.

Mitsuki blushed for some reason, fidgeting with the cables. “I- I guess I chose bad employers… but it’s in the past, isn’t it? Everything is fine now! We should we start your test now, so can go have fun with Luka. Tell me-“

Gakupo waved a hand. “Not yet. Who are those people? What did they want with you?”

Luka began to feel rather curious herself, given Mitsuki’s obvious reticence about the subject. What was she researching for them?

“I…I guess I owe you both the truth,” Mitsuki finally mumbled, staring at the floor. “They’re criminals, though that shouldn’t be all that surprising to you. They offered me the chance to pursue new avenues of research regarding VEs and pure data constructs, without the interference of the law.”

“Once they had me working for them, though, that translated into some really disgusting things. And they wouldn’t let me leave. Not that I had a place to go, mind you.” Mitsuki smiled wryly. “I’m legally responsible for all of Gakupo’s crimes…which means several life sentences in jail.”

“What kind of disgusting things?” Luka questioned.

Mitsuki exhaled. “You know, of course, of the constraints I had to break in order to free Gakupo. It wasn’t my initial focus when I was working with him, but I ran into the security measures added in order to avoid synthetics directly harming humans.” The scientist ran a couple of fingers down the side of Gakupo’s face in an almost motherly gesture, then stepped away and resumed pacing.

“It’s really quite difficult for a VE to break so badly that it would actually be physically violent against people, like Kaito did. A complete breakdown of the upper functions is much more likely. I’m guessing that’s why the factory scientists kept him around, to figure out how he could still operate in any fashion after the incident.”

“Well, that’s what they wanted from me. Extraordinarily attractive killers that can be taught to do any number of depraved things... And once you trade your eye and hair pieces for more natural colors, it’s harder to distinguish you from humans, at least superficially.”

The scientist paused, her expression dark. “There are people that would pay huge amounts of money for a slave so resilient to things that could kill a human, and willing to do things no sane person would do.”

Luka and Gakupo looked at each other. She could see he was having great difficulties accepting what they’d just heard, and she was faring only slightly better.

“Did you succeed? Are Gumi and Lily … _modified_?” Gakupo finally asked. It was a fair point. The girls were locked up in one of Benefactor’s empty rooms, but this could make them much more dangerous than first expected.

“Sort of,” Mitsuki conceded. “They were among the first units my employers handed me for experimentation. I’ve been testing a numbers of things on them, so they are somewhat different from the results I’ve obtained with the others the organization rounded up. Gumi and Lily shouldn’t be a danger to you after I modify their permissions lists.”

“Who do you mean when you say ‘others’?”

“My employers either stole or captured a number of VEs in the initial confusion after the ship arrived on Earth,” Mitsuki explained. “They even bribed some officials in order to get into the factory and grab hold of the last VEs produced before the shutdown.”

“It was them?! But Ben only detected two VEs inside the base!” Gakupo continued. Luka could see where this was heading, even before he continued. “Where are the other units?”

“Belt Station,” Mitsuki said, furrowing her brow. “They‘re going to be auctioned off during the station’s anniversary celebrations.”

“We need to save them!” And there it was. Despite everything, Gakupo still insisted on acting like he was some kind of superhero. It was both sweet and incredibly frustrating, as far as Luka was concerned.

“Belt is heavily defended,” Mitsuki pointedly reminded him. “You had an easy time on Mars, but you shouldn’t expect the same thing to happen twice.”

“We can’t just leave them behind,” Gakupo grumbled, turning to Luka for support.

“Gakupo, you are barely back into fully operational status and you’re already thinking of risking yourself again; of risking _all of us_. You’ve got to remember your limitations.” Perhaps it was too direct a rebuke, but Luka was tired of being scared on his behalf.

As expected, her words earned her a hurt look. ”I _know_. I know I can’t accomplish anything on my own. I couldn’t even-“ He broke off suddenly and looked away. Luka tilted her head, curious, but that particular train of thought was left unvoiced. Instead, he mumbled, “this isn’t about me. It’s about giving them a chance for a proper life.”

“A proper life, you say?” Mitsuki rubbed her chin. “Maybe we can put together some sort of plan.” Her tone didn’t sound particularly convinced, but she seemed willing to put an effort for Gakupo’s sake. 

“We should discuss it with the others and Benefactor first,” Luka said guardedly. “We’ll see.” Although, as far as she concerned, she wasn’t going to agree to go for it unless it was an _extremely_ good plan: she felt sorry for the new units, but even Smith referred to Belt as a dangerous place.

“So, can I test you now?” Mitsuki asked.

“Ah yes, of course.”

To Luka’s great relief, Gakupo managed to answer every question without difficulty: his answers were consistent with his personality type and problem-solving subroutines, and he had unrestricted access to his memories. Mitsuki approved repeatedly, nodding proudly.

“I think you are good to go. Is there somewhere I can sleep for a few hours? I’ve been going on for…” the scientist’s eyes vainly wandered around the room, as if expecting a clock to be hanging from Benefactor’s walls. “Eh, long enough that I’m feeling really sleepy.”

“Oh yes, we have a room for you. I’ll get you there,” Luka rose and took Mitsuki’s hand. “Wait for me here, Gakupo. I have something to show you,” she smiled sweetly.

“Actually, I have to something to do, but I’ll come back here right after I’m done,” Gakupo replied, with a smile of his own.

Luka raised an eyebrow, but nodded. An instant later, she and the scientist disappeared.

“Ben, warp me to the hangar please. I need to talk to _Escualo._ ”

***

“I’m really glad this was here. I’d feel awkward running around in rags when Luka’s wearing her new outfit,” Gakupo commented, showing the white jacket to _Escualo_ ’s electronic eye.

“That’s your spare flight uniform, Gakupo. Please provide sufficient information to determine its suitability for a romantic date.”

“Um, it’s new and in good condition. That’s as good as it going to get, unless there’s a tuxedo store around here that I don’t know about.” Gakupo look around, as if he expected a store attendant to suddenly appear inside of _Escualo_ ’s tiny storage area.

“I’d need a complete map of Benefactor’s decks to answer that, but contextual evidence points towards the negative.”

“No, I don’t think there is one.”

“That’s regrettable. If I understand correctly, a certain manner of dress ensures your partner will agree to an intimate encounter.”

Gakupo laughed. “I’ll let you know how it goes, then.”

“Thank you,” _Escualo_ ’s AI replied pleasantly. “By the way, you mentioned you wanted to ask me something?”

“Ah, yes.” Gakupo pulled the worn t-shirt over his head. “There are some friends of ours kept prisoner in Belt Station. Would you be willing to help us to rescue them?”

“Does it benefit you in any way?”

“I’ve be very happy to know they are safe.” The shorts were next to go.

“Then the answer is yes. Remember that I exist for your sake.”

“I’d blush if I were physically able to,” Gakupo quipped. He quickly put the flight suit on, and sat on a box to do the same with the boots. “It’s good to know you are always on my side.”

“I take it that the previous statement reflects appreciation. If so, I’d blush as well, if I had skin and a circulatory system,” _Escualo_ ’s AI replied. “Have a nice date, Gakupo.”

“I will.”

Luka was there waiting in the charging room, when Gakupo returned. She gave him an impish smile, studying him from head to toe. “ _My_ , this is unexpected.”

“I was told appropriate clothing in a date guarantees intimate encounters. Would you rate this as appropriate?”

“I wasn’t aware this was a date,” Luka replied. She circled Gakupo, appraising him. “I intend to do a performance test of my own, but we could call it a date, I guess. As for the outfit….” She giggled and hugged him from behind, nuzzling her head against his back. “Benefactor, please.”

They reappeared in a wide circular space Gakupo hadn’t seen before. The floor around them shined vaguely, but the exact dimensions of the room were shrouded in darkness.

“What is this place?” Gakupo’s voice echoed. It gave him a clue of how wide and empty this place was.

“Remember how Ollie wanted an observation deck?” Luka asked. “Well, this is as close as I managed to find. I think the old crew used to gather here to play with this.” Luka raised her arm, making motions in the air, almost like an orchestra conductor back in Earth.

Benefactor sang a powerful note, and a ball of light exploded into existence above their heads. Like a ricochet from a silver gun, more and more stars appeared out of nowhere, some pulsing in place, others circling them in wide orbits. The ship kept weaving a song, and Luka joined in, dragging her hands along the ground. Waves of aquamarine shine sprung around them, and soon Luka and Gakupo were up to their shins in a sea populated with glittering lights, mirroring the dark space above.

“How do you control this?!” Gakupo sank his hands into the waves, amazed. It wasn’t wet, of course, but they was a certain fluidic sensation in his hands, possibly fed directly into his mind by the ship.

“Benefactor does most of it. I just told him what I wanted to see, and what notes should trigger it. For example…” Luka sang some more, and it began to rain light over them. It retained presence for a few seconds, shining like small diamonds in their hair and clothes, before it disappeared. She tried another tone, and then the rain turned into fluttering petals, decorating the surface of the sea.

Benefactor began another song, and Gakupo recognized it as the waltz Luka and he had danced so long ago, when the beacon was first installed into their heads. Luka stretched her hand out with her head slightly tilted. “Dance with me, my prince.”

He reverently took the offered hand and kissed it, before pulling her into his arms. They turned around and around, leaving silvery trails in the air as they danced to Benefactor’s voice.

“Something happened to you down there, Luka, something liberating,” Gakupo whispered into her ear, without stopping their movements. All his worrying, all this words had been ultimately fruitless to help her overcome the shadows that plagued her. And yet Luka had returned to him transformed, shining even more than the illusionary stars that surrounded them.

Luka pulled away a little, to watch his face. “You sound sad.”

“I am, just a bit. I mean, I’m glad I survived long enough to see you like this, but-“ Gakupo broke off suddenly. He felt guilty, like he was ruining an important moment. “I did nothing to help you! Sonika’s right; I never bring anything to the table beyond wishful thinking!”

“Um, how about the time you crossed the Solar System to come get me back? Or how you always love me and treat me like I’m the center of the universe?” Luka asked him. Her expression made quite clear how silly she considered his concerns. “Do you actually think I could’ve come this far without you?” She threw her arms around his neck and squeezed. “If you keep this up, I won’t give you a passing grade.”

Gakupo laughed quietly. He wasn’t completely assuaged, but Luka was happy, and that was enough for the moment. “I don’t think you explained how you were going to gauge me.”

“How indeed.” Her mouth sought his, and she demonstrated one such parameter. 

A physical test made a lot of sense, truth be told. And this was certainly going to be thorough examination, if the gleam in Luka’s eyes was any indication. Suddenly the light show became a crystallization of something that had never been concrete, but still seemed familiar to him. They had been to a sea like this before, tangled into one pleasurable ache. They would come again, with desire as unfathomable as the oceans of the mind.

The waters gleamed in a perfect match to their joy, crashing against their bodies. The surface swirled and danced, merrily broken, over and over again.


	20. Sensitive Research

Deep in the bowels of Benefactor, there was a drafty, narrow place. More than a room, it was the negative space created by two huge walls of machinery, the life-support systems of the ship. Some of it was in suspended state, given that only a limited number of rooms were kept with an environment suitable for Mitsuki. The others were humming, happily simulating the atmosphere of Earth.

Kaito lay on his back on a catwalk between them, with his muffler snaking carelessly around his head. One of the sleeves of his oversized lab coat was torn and hanging from a few last threads, and he absently played with it. The blinking lights of the devices around him and the twin blue stars of Kaito’s unblinking stare were the only sources of light.

Suddenly, the air shifted next to Kaito’s head, and Gakupo appeared. He crouched down, his expression full of curiosity. “What are you doing here? I’ve never even _been_ in this room before!”

Kaito stared at him with a morose expression, but made no comment.

“Mitsuki is ready to examine you now.”

Kaito sat up, but didn’t seem willing to do anything further.

“I’m sure she’ll find a way to optimize your coding, if you need it,” Gakupo continued cheerfully, placing a hand over Kaito’s shoulder. Then, he noticed the state of his attire and asked, “What happened to your sleeve?”

“Meiko tore it,” Kaito answered unenthusiastically.

“Oh? Perhaps she needs a strength re-calibration. Even later models like Luka and me need regular adjustments when dealing with delicate things like clothing.”

“It was on purpose. She says this is grungy and I need to wear something else.”

“It _is_ rather worn,” Gakupo commented, sapped of some of his cheerfulness. After some internal debate, he added, “Look, if Meiko’s being violent again, you need to tell the rest of us. We can help.”

“Can you really?” Kaito’s voice was uncharacteristically sour.

“Um, if nothing else, we can tie her up until Mitsuki is done with everything else she needs to check. There’s no need to have her run around bothering you,” Gakupo mumbled, tugging a strand of his hair. It wasn’t the best plan, but it was better than giving her free reign of the ship.

Kaito shook his head. “What if _I_ _’_ _m_ the one that’s needs to be put away? I hurt Miku, and now I’m making Meiko behave abnormally!”

“It has nothing to do with you. I don’t really understand what, but something in her past is responsible,” Gakupo stated, sitting down next to Kaito.

“How can you say it has nothing to do with me?!” Kaito scooted away, upset, and his voice dropped to a whisper. “I don’t know how to face her anymore.” He began to pull the sleeve again and finally tore it away from the rest of the lab coat, discarding it with disgust. “I don’t know how to help her, or myself. I don’t know anything.”

“None of us are built with the knowledge to face all the problems we run into,” Gakupo argued. “Ignorant is our default state as VE units. And humans aren’t all that different.”

Kaito didn’t reply; instead, he stubbornly fixed his gaze on a dark corner of the room. Gakupo waited, feeling increasingly restless. After all the time in the box, he was fed up with staying in place for long. But his friend obviously wasn’t ready to go up yet.

“Why do you like wearing that lab coat, anyway?” Gakupo finally asked after a minute. Of all things, keeping a remainder of his time on the labs seemed like an odd choice.

“My default outfit had a long white jacket,” Kaito mumbled, still not looking at him. “Mi-chan liked it.”

“I see,” Gakupo replied. So in a way, it was a keepsake of the human florist. That made more sense.

“What do you call it, when Luka and you come together? Merging?” Kaito asked. Without even waiting for Gakupo’s response, he added, “I wish I could remember merging with Mi-chan, or even kissing her.”

“I don’t know about merging with a human, actually.” Gakupo said. The idea sounded very strange to him. “But what you truly want is a feeling of closeness, right?”

“Closeness...” Kaito closed his eyes, examining the word. “I want to feel like I _deserve_ closeness.” He picked up the torn sleeve and examined it for a few instants. “I really envy you, you know?”

“Me? How come?”

“As far as upper layer coding goes, you seem pretty stable. I bet you’d never break down like I did.”

“It wasn’t the same circumstances you faced, but I _did_ break down once,” Gakupo said softly. “When I thought I’d never see Luka again…I just couldn’t take it.”

Kaito stared, taken aback. “Did you hurt anyone?”

“No, my mind just disintegrated,” Gakupo fiddled with his hair, uncomfortable. Even recalling that moment in time and the despair he felt was painful. “If it weren’t for Mitsuki, I’d be processed materials in a recycling plant somewhere.” He laughed a little, although he felt far from happy at the thought. “Perhaps that makes you stronger than me, Kaito. You managed to survive on your own, despite everything that the world threw at you.”

“I never thought someone would use the word strong to describe me,” Kaito mumbled sadly. “But I’d like to be strong, more than anything. I guess the first step is getting checked by your Master, right?”

“Former master,” Gakupo reminded him gently.

“Oh, former master, of course,” Kaito said, getting up.

Gakupo got up as well, and slung his arm around Kaito’s shoulders. The blue-haired bot looked at him with surprise, and Gakupo returned the look with a big grin. “We aren’t Mi-chan, but we are here for you, me and everyone else. Remember that. Ben, we are ready!”

“Um, thanks,” Kaito whispered. Before they disappeared, a small smile began to form on his face.

***

Mitsuki’s new laboratory inside Benefactor was quite the mess already, despite the synthetics’ help in tidying things up. It truly appeared to be the unavoidable destiny of any room Mitsuki inhabited for an extended amount of time. That day, Luka and Rin were sorting out the shelves, while Mitsuki finished Miku’s repairs.

“I still can’t get over the fact that I worked on the famous Miku Hatsune,” Mitsuki giggled, gingerly touching one of the unit’s toes. “Can you wiggle these for me?”

Miku complied, her face gleaming with happiness. Across the room, Luka and Rin cheered. Mitsuki helped Miku climb down from the worktable and observed with professional pride as the girl tested her limbs, stretching and shifting her weight.

“I’ve missed this so much,” Miku exclaimed, hopping from one foot to the other. Then she did a little dance, her long hair and the sheer fabric of her makeshift dress fluttering around her body as she twirled, and finished with a bow.

Mitsuki coughed. “Um, I’ve meaning to say this for a while, but… Don’t you think you should get a new outfit? That’s a bit, um, revealing. I mean, there’s Gakupo and Kiyoteru and the other boys walking around…”

Miku blinked at her, and then looked down at the body. “But I like this; it’s like the surface of a bubble.”

Luka smiled. Obviously, Mitsuki had her human conceptions of what was proper to wear, especially for someone that seemed underage. “Maybe you could wear a mini dress or a tube top and shorts underneath it,” she suggested.  

Mitsuki immediately grabbed hold of the idea, nodding vigorously. “Yes, yes! You should wear a cute little dress, maybe something teal like your hair, or white to bring out the color of the fabric and the sash.”

“But where do I get that?” As soon as the words left her mouth, the obvious answer occurred to Miku, given by the change in her expression. Meiko and her hadn’t spoken a word since the ship left Mars. In fact, Meiko barely left her room of dresses anymore, except to get more charge.

“We can ask Meiko for something nice for you, if you want,” Rin chirped. Luka nodded in agreement.

Miku looked at the floor, tracing figures with the tip of ones of her big toes. After a moment, she looked up. “I should go myself; she’s going need my measurements.”

“Then we’ll go with you,” Luka said emphatically.

Miku smiled, relieved. “Thanks.” She looked to a side, smoothing one of her twin tails. “I do wish she and I could be friends. We’re on the same path, aren’t we?”

“Try talking to her, then.” Mitsuki gestured with her hands. “You have all shown exceptional adaptability in your programming, her reaction might surprise us.”

The teal-haired bot nodded. After a moment’s hesitation, she bowed to Mitsuki. “I’m off then. Thanks for the hard work, Mitsuki.”

Luka and Rin fell into step behind her, as she traversed Benefactor’s dimly-lit tunnels. Along the way, Miku commented: “I wish there was a racing track inside of here. I feel like running a marathon right now.”

“We should prepare another act now that you can join us!” Rin exclaimed. She immediately began jumping around, remembering some old choreography.

“As long as I’m not the main star, that’s fine with me,” Miku said, and laughed a little. She still seemed a little tense, but her laughter was undoubtedly genuine. “I have enough of that.”

“Len and I are the stars, obviously. That’s the Golden Rule!” Rin struck a pose, a silly grin on her face.

“Oh, I did hear of your show once! My handlers considered giving me another unit to interact with, but decided I needed to be available for the fans,” Miku commented.

“Available for what?” Rin asked, tilting her head.

“She means to be a suitable target for their fantasies,” Luka interjected.

“Huh?”

“I’ll explain later. We are here,” Luka waved her hand in the direction of the metal door of Meiko’s room. She and Rin watched Miku stop abruptly, just outside of range for the door’s mechanism to sense her approach.

For a long minute, Miku stood in front of the closed door, mesmerized. Luka stepped closer and watched her expression intently.

“I can do this,” the girl whispered. “I can do it, right?”

“Yes, you can.” Luka took a step back and wrapped her arm around Rin’s shoulders, to stop her from fidgeting.

After more seconds crawled by, Miku hesitantly took a step forward. The door slid open, allowing the trio to see Meiko sitting on the floor, hugging her knees. Her expression was hidden by her bangs. Her hair was in disarray, and Luka realized that the blue rose usually adorning it was nowhere to be seen. Next to the unit, there was a small mountain of white and blue fabric, completely torn into ribbons.

“Meiko? May we please talk to you?” Miku called out to the brunette from the doorframe.

Slowly, Meiko’s face tilted upwards, her eyes a raging electronic bonfire. She glared at the units without saying a word.

“Um, I- Sorry for barging in like this, but-“ Miku walked closer, stopping every few steps as if waiting for Meiko to jump up and attack her. Luka took Rin’s hand and followed the former VE star, suddenly wishing she had brought a weapon to protect the smaller units. Still, three-on-one were good odds, if the worst happened.

“Stop mumbling and tell me what you want,” Meiko suddenly said with dry venom in her voice.

“I…um, Mitsuki says I should wear something under this fabric, and you…er…” Miku stammered, cringing as Meiko rose, towering above her.

“Can you make her a mini dress?” Luka asked, deciding to direct some of Meiko’s attention towards her.

Meiko didn’t answer. Instead, she looked downwards, at the pile of rags. Suddenly her expression twisted into rage and she stomped on it repeatedly. Miku jumped back, yelping. Luka grabbed her and pushed the girl behind her, same as Rin. But Meiko barely seemed interested in any of them.

“Stupid, stupid puppet!” Meiko shrieked, lost in her fury. Luka suddenly realized what the rags were: A complete new set of clothes for Kaito, embroidered and lovingly crafted, and completely ruined.

“You worked hard on that, didn’t you?” She asked, using her calmest tone.

Meiko’s movements stopped as abruptly as they had begun. She stood there, looking down at her work, shaking. “…I did.”

Luka sighed internally. She could understand Kaito’s reluctance to accept anything from Meiko, lest she consider it some proof of ownership. “What a shame, it looks like it was a beautiful outfit.”

“It really does. You’re very talented, Meiko,” Miku said, venturing out from behind Luka. She tried to smile.

“But not as much as you, right?” Meiko asked in a mocking tone. “It’s all so obvious. You’re the princess, you the golden child and you the perfect woman,” she stated, pointing to Miku, Rin and Luka in turn. “What am I next to you all, huh? Just a soiled doll.” She kicked the torn clothing, and added in a lower tone. “I could never own someone like Kaito. Of course he’d choose a princess over me.”

“I don’t want to be a princess!” Miku protested, her pitch rising even higher in a good approximation of human nervousness. “I want to be a friend to everyone here, including you!”

Meiko looked at her, shocked.

“You were ill used in the past, and now you want to be in control. I understand that, really. But think about it. Did the ones that hurt you really look like something you want to imitate?” Luka questioned.

“That would be super dumb!” Rin piped up.

“You are better than any of them, Meiko! Please let us reach you!” Miku haltingly took one of Meiko’s hands and squeezed it. “You can’t own Kaito, or any of us. But it isn’t that bad, is it? We can go on together into the future.” Miku looked down at their hands. “I don’t know if you hate being by yourself, but I’m terrified of it. Please…please save me from being alone, Meiko.”

Luka observed Meiko’s eyes, trying to anticipate her reaction. Would she even able to comprehend the idea of bonds based on mutual respect?

All of the sudden, Meiko fell on her knees, crumbling like a wilted flower. She pressed Miku’s hand against her forehead, silently, before letting it go. Miku gave Rin and Luka a baffled look, before turning her eyes back towards the hunched figure. After some consideration, Luka kneeled as well and hugged Meiko, gesturing to Miku and Rin with her head. The girls joined her after a moment, enveloping Meiko’s form.

“We can choose to love you, Meiko. All of us,” Miku whispered. Meiko’s body trembled in response, but she hid her face in Luka’s shoulder, stubbornly silent.

“You don’t need to be a princess to be loved,” Luka continued. “Or perfect. None of us is the perfect anything, really.”

“If I were perfect, I wouldn’t need anyone else to be happy,” Rin added. “But I do, I need my family.”

“We all need each other. And that includes you,” concluded Miku.

 _For being unrehearsed, that didn_ _’_ _t go that badly_ , Luka thought with amusement; _Meiko,_ _what will you choose to do?_ _You can_ _’_ _t just curl up in here forever._

At first, Meiko seemed poised to do just that. Her trembling subsisted so long that Luka began to fear they had precipitated a behavioural error. 

“I…need some time to think about all of this,” Meiko finally answered. “Please leave.”

The trio of units stood up, looking at each other awkwardly. At least on a personal level, Luka felt they had done their best to shake up Meiko’s worldview. She just wasn’t sure it was enough.

“Um, then, we’ll be going, I guess. Thanks for listening,” Miku mumbled, her nervousness back in full force.

“Let me take your measurements first,” Meiko replied in a dull tone.

Despite her lack of enthusiasm, Miku smiled widely at her and the other two. “Yes! Thank you!”

“It’s nothing,” the taller unit replied. But there was a new glow in her eyes, something that could grow, and make her more beautiful than she’d ever been before.

 _Not a botched attempt, perhaps._ Luka smiled with relief as Meiko measured Miku’s modest chest carefully.

_Welcome, Meiko._

***

Mitsuki replaced Gumi’s head piece and smoothed her soft green hair. She seemed less cheerful than usual, but managed to smile gently. “You don’t have to protect me anymore, Gumi, Lily.”

The two girls were sitting on her worktable, next to the machinery pilfered from the base. Behind Mitsuki, Gakupo, Luka, Kaito, Kiyoteru and Leon waited for their reaction. The former bodyguards examined the group with a curious expression, then glanced at each other, clad in the revealing clothing Mitsuki’s former employers decided to give them.

“This feels different,” Lily commented.

“You are Mitsuki. I could kick your rear if I wanted,” Gumi stated, looking back at the human.

Mitsuki blinked, then waved at Gakupo and Luka to stop them from moving forward. “It’s ok! Really! Gumi isn’t really going to hit me, _right_?”

“Of course not. I just wanted to see how it felt to say it,” Gumi laughed and stuck her tongue out playfully.

“You freed us,” Lily said in her deep voice. Despite her restrained tone, she appeared happy as well.

“We were all prisoners back there. It’s only fair I fixed that, after my friends rescued me,” the scientist replied.

“You are a strange one,” Gumi exclaimed. “The best kind of strange, though.”

“I feel flattered.” Mitsuki grinned.

“Now fix Lola.” Everyone turned to look at the corner, where Leon leaned against the wall, arms crossed. “Everyone else is fixed, everyone else is happy. I was told you could fix her. Give me Lola back. That’s your function.” It was the longest speech anyone had ever heard from him.

Mitsuki fidgeted. “I…I know you miss her. However, that’s a much more delicate job than anything else I’ve done here, and I’m more of a software expert.”

Leon’s expression darkened. “Give her back.”

Gakupo stepped between them. “Don’t speak to her like that.”

“Silence. It’s your fault Lola is gone.” Leon’s eyes focused on him with hostility.

“You guys were attacking us! You threw me overboard!” Gakupo replied, bewildered.

But Luka could see that being directly accused of wrecking Lola had struck a metaphorical nerve. She decided to step in before he decided to pull something stupid and self-sacrificing like offering his own parts. “So you need a hardware specialist to help you, Mitsuki?”

“That would be the best solution, yes. But wait…” Mitsuki’s eyes widened, shocked. “You aren’t thinking of abducting one, are you?”

“Not to take them permanently with us, no, but maybe to pass on to you some skills and documentation,” Luka explained.

“I think you are overestimating the rate at which I can learn. I’m still human, you know?”

“And where do you suppose we can get such a professional, an ad on the net?” Kiyoteru asked.

“The organization I worked for has a team in Belt to perform their illegal hardware modifications,” Mitsuki ventured cautiously. “If we are going there, perhaps…”

“Oh, I’m sure they will be happy to collaborate,” Kiyoteru said drily.

“Perhaps seeing a giant hostile ship might convince them.” As if the matter was settled, Leon turned around and stepped out the lab’s door.

Mitsuki sighed. “Have you guys _even decided_ whether you want to approach Belt or not?”

Gakupo frowned. “It shouldn’t even be in question. Our friends need us.”

Luka groaned internally. “We’ll have a vote, ok?” She turned towards Gumi and Lily, who seemed rather lost by this point in the conversation. “You two should vote as well. Come with me while I do my maintenance rounds and I’ll get you up to date on things.”

“I want to check on some structures on deck 3. Kiyoteru, want to come with me?” Gakupo said. Kiyoteru nodded, slightly surprised.

“If you don’t have anything else to do, could you stay with me and chat, Kaito?” Mitsuki asked good-humoredly. His initial evaluation had been a success, but Mitsuki was clearly interested in studying an earlier VE model more deeply.

“Um, sure,” Kaito answered a bit unnerved by the gleam in the scientist’s eyes. She cheerfully wagged her fingers in the air, with a smile that was just a little too wide. Kaito glanced back at the rest, eyes wide.

“She’s not going to harm you, Kaito,” Gakupo whispered in his ear, to Luka’s amusement. Did the VE-01 really need that spelled out? “She’s just enthusiastic about us.” He straightened up and signaled the ship to warp him and Kiyoteru.

Luka gestured Lily and Gumi to follow her and walked out the door. “Have fun, you two,” she said over her shoulder.

“We will!” Mitsuki said, flashing two thumbs-up at the bots until the door closed. Kaito settled on looking awfully like a lamb about to be eaten by a wolf.

***

“Not that I don’t appreciate the invitation, but I’m wondering why you asked me to join you here,” Kiyoteru told Gakupo as soon as they appeared among the mysterious mechanisms of deck 3. He gestured towards the towering structures all around them, a jungle of crystalline crisscrossing tubes, panels with blinking lights and tall thick metallic pillars with many protruding sections of unknown purpose. A subtle hum permeated the air.

“Aside from Luka, you are the only one with repair skills among us,” Gakupo replied, and started walking towards an elevated section of the floor, with something that looked like a control console. “And you are less concerned about my personal well-being than her, so you might be able to give me an unbiased opinion.”

“There is no such thing as an unbiased opinion, Gakupo.” Kiyoteru pushed up his glasses. “Check your word banks.”

“Strictly speaking, you are right. But I’m using relative assessment here.”

“Well then, ask away.”

“This whole deck seems full of interesting machines. So, let’s just say we find something here that we can return to working state,” Gakupo started, and immediately raised a hand to stop Kiyoteru from interrupting. “I don’t want to attack the station, not at all, but we need something to bargain.”

“Bargain? You mean to trade the units for alien technology?”

“Why not? Belt authorities crave new technology, right?” Gakupo slid his hand along the side of a metal box in the middle of the path. It had several rows of blinking indicators on its front, with strange symbols etched under each.

“We could end destabilizing the power equilibrium of the whole Solar System,” the other unit pointed up.

Gakupo stared at the metallic surface, tinged with the red and purple reflection of his own figure. “I’m beginning to think…maybe I can’t save everyone. Maybe it’s wrong to even try. But I’m still willing to do anything for the ones I care about. Let the humans sort their problems on their own.”

“Another logical hiccup; did Mitsuki really clear you as recovered?” The bespectacled unit shook his head. “Giving one faction technology is the opposite of letting them develop on their own. Then again, I don’t actually care about them. I just feel I should point out the fallacies in your argument.”

“Thanks for the input,” Gakupo laughed. “So you would be in favour of the idea.”

“Yes, I suppose so.”

_Benefactor, consensus reached. Proposal, rejected._

Gakupo froze. He looked upwards, in lieu of something to focus as Benefactor’s ‘face’. He suddenly felt guilty. Of course he should’ve consulted with the ship first, before speaking with anyone else. Perhaps he truly was still malfunctioning.

“…I’m sorry, Ben. I thought you wouldn’t mind, if it meant rescuing the others.”

_Security breach proposed. Organic matter, not cleared for usage of sensitive research._

“Wait, sensitive research? I thought you said you didn’t remember the purpose of this deck,” Gakupo asked, frowning.

_Partial recovery, achieved. Design documentation, recovered. Daily research logs, 64% corrupted. Conclusions, not found. Additional files, not found._

“So, what were they researching then? Can you tell us?”

Benefactor didn’t reply. Instead, Kiyoteru suddenly pulled Gakupo’s arm, pointing to the wide open space before the console. “What’s that?!”

It was a grey figure, slimmer and taller than them, extremely distorted and filled with static, like a corrupted video transmission. It was incredibly disconcerting to see it trashing about as is in great agony, but have no audio to go along with it. After a couple of seconds, a flash of light emitted from the spot, followed by a blue glint before the creature disappeared.

_Benefactor, consensus reached. Research, dangerous._

_Benefactor loves small ones._

With the familiar cascade of warnings rushing through his mind, Gakupo suddenly found himself back at the charging room, with Kiyoteru still grabbing his arm. They looked at each, baffled.

“What just happened?” Kiyoteru asked, letting go off Gakupo and unnecessarily patting down his suit for non-existing dust.

“I think…I think Ben showed us what happened to his old crew.” Gakupo scratched his head. “I don’t think he wants us to find out what they were doing in deck 3.”

“I don’t think _I_ want to know,” Kiyoteru retorted.

Gakupo ran his hands through his hair, unsure of what to do. He obviously couldn’t go against Benefactor’s wishes, even if he wanted. But then, how could they rescue the others? He looked up, almost expecting some explanation or comment from the ship.

There was nothing.


	21. Equal Exchange

“I still think we should try talking with them,” Miku insisted.

The whole group of robots and Mitsuki were sitting inside one of Benefactor’s empty rooms, discussing their next move. After much arguing, everyone finally agreed on the necessity of rescuing the new units from Belt Station, but there were several opinions on how to do it.

“There’s no way they’ll agree to negotiate with us, they view us as commodities,” Meiko muttered darkly. Herself and Leon were the most inclined towards simply letting Benefactor use violence to force the humans into surrendering the units. And, as Leon pointed out again and again, hardware technicians to repair Lola.

“But we have to try first! We can’t just go charging in, what if they do something to them just to spite us?” The teal-haired girl frowned, an expression very out of place in her delicate face. The ornaments in her hair clinked when she inclined her head slightly.

 _I guess their relationship is finally healing_ , Luka thought, observing the pretty ribbons and crystal beads woven into Miku’s twin tails. It wasn’t the chaotic and overdone mess the girl wore during the days when she ‘reigned’ over the sunken city. Now, Miku had tastefully chosen the best ornaments and her hair was brushed and orderly. But the mere fact that she had elected to wear Kaito’s gifts again clearly meant something, and he could sense it as well. Every few minutes, Luka caught him stealing a glance at Miku, smiling softly.

Meiko probably noticed it as well, but her stoic expression revealed nothing of what her thoughts on the subject were. Her choice to sit away from them both, and next to Leon, was much more telling.

 _I could never give up on Gakupo like that. But I don’t have to, and I’ll never need to,_ Luka thought with satisfaction and squeezed her beloved’s hand. He squeezed back with a smiling side-glance, filling her with joy. With Gakupo at her side and their children at the other, Luka felt prepared to face ten thousand humans if necessary.

“Miku has a good point there,” Gakupo spoke up. “If we are overly aggressive, they might use the new units to punish us. The problem is what to do instead. I thought about bargaining with them, but Ben doesn’t want to hand them any of his artifacts.”

 _Artifacts? So that’s what Gakupo and Kiyoteru were doing in deck 3?_ Luka, of course, felt a burning curiosity towards the objects there, but she also knew she should be wary of investigating them. With so many things still uncertain about Benefactor’s technology, even handling the apparatuses could be dangerous.

“I realize this might sound hypocritical coming from me,” Mitsuki started, “but I think your ship friend is right on that front. There’s no telling what the organization might do with access to something this advanced. It might be just what Belt authorities need to sever ties with Earth, and that place really shouldn’t go unsupervised.”

“Wait, sever ties with Earth?” Gakupo and several others voiced their surprise.

“It’s just something I overheard back in the base. Belt was constructed by several nations of the Security Council, and in theory follows Earth’s international law. However, the head administrator and his advisors feel that Belt should become wholly independent, like Mars. They’ve been operating with the organization I used to work with, to find ways to get Earth to grant them full rights.”

“That’s really interesting,” Kiyoteru stated, although his voice didn’t sound too enthused. “But I fear that we’re straying from the topic at hand. We can’t trade with them, so the way I see it is we try Miku’s way, and when that fails, we threaten them or outright attack.”

“I don’t like the idea of attacking the station itself. There’s a lot of creeps inside of it, but also some of them are just oblivious, really rich holiday-makers,” Mitsuki pointed out. “Maybe the ship should focus on the globular collector instead. The station has emergency energy systems; those should last them long enough to fix the main source of power.”

“Sounds good to me,” Leon remarked. Everyone else nodded or voiced their agreement.

“Would you do that for us, Ben?” Gakupo asked, and Luka noticed a touch of meekness in his tone. How strange.

_Small Ones, first priority. Consensus reached. Offensive actions, authorized._

Gakupo and Luka passed on the ship’s response to the rest.

“I hope we don’t get to that point,” Miku muttered.

“We all do,” Gakupo answered. At least two units of the group seemed to contest that sentiment with their expressions, but neither spoke up. “All right, I think we’re done here, unless any of you has something to say.”

There were no further topics, so everyone stood up and approached the door of the chamber. Gumi and Lily followed Mitsuki, perhaps due to force of habit. Most of the others quickly exited the room, but to Luka’s surprise, Miku quickly stepped forward and stopped Meiko from leaving, speaking to her in hushed tones. After a moment, Meiko allowed Miku to hold her hand and lead her towards Kaito.

The two older-looking units eyed each other cautiously. Miku waited patiently, her hand and Meiko’s still interlocked.

“What’s going on?” Gakupo whispered in Luka’s ear.

“Just watch,” Luka replied and wrapped an arm around his waist.

Since the other two weren’t any closer to making their move, Miku finally sighed dramatically and took Kaito’s hand. Kaito looked at her wide-eyed, almost needing to be dragged when Miku started walking. “The three of us need to talk, so please walk with me!” she declared, masking her own nervousness with high-pitched bravado.

 “Ah! Wh-where are we going?” Kaito blurted out.

“We’ll figure it out on the way!” Miku replied.

Meiko just surrendered to the situation, albeit with a raised eyebrow and a wary expression, visible until the trio exited the room.

“What’s she doing?” Rin piped up, next to Luka and Gakupo. Len was a few steps behind, playing with one of the maintenance bots. Oliver shyly clung to Rin’s arm, squeezing her like he was afraid she was going to evaporate at any second. _He’s probably terrified of going to Belt_ , Luka realized.

Gakupo must’ve thought the same thing, because he knelt down and hugged Oliver. “It’s going to be ok, Ollie.”

Meanwhile, Luka ruffled Rin’s hair. “Miku’s determined to be friends with them, I guess.”

“I like it when she’s not frightened,” Rin noted.

“I feel the same way.” Luka’s gaze strayed towards the maintenance bot and the artificial boy, and she noticed something peculiar.

Len held his hands before the squat machine, with only the index and middle finger of each one stretched out. In response, the lights on the top of the bot blinked four times. Then Len held only one finger up. “Subtract,” Len requested.

In response, the bot now flashed his lights three times.

“Oh, you are communicating with them?”

“Belka is really smart!” Rin chirped.

Gakupo followed Luka’s stare and watched Len and Belka for a few seconds. “Basic math…I suppose that’s a start.”

“They also know what ‘true’ and ‘false’ mean,” Rin pointed out proudly.

“We are what are thanks to those concepts,” Gakupo approached the little bot and patted its back. “Even if their programming is different from us, it must be the basis of their thinking as well.”

“The problem is getting more complex ideas across,” Luka knelt next to him. “I’d really like to ask Laika and the others if they know what happened to the crew.”

Gakupo gave her a quick glance. “Ben showed Kiyoteru and me something, when we went to deck 3,” he said quietly.

“Yes?”

 Gakupo noticed the intrigued expressions of the trio of golden-haired children and frowned slightly. “You three, don’t even think of going there to play, please.”

“Boo,” Rin said pouting. But Oliver and Len nodded immediately, and she did as well, after a moment.

“Whatever caused the crew to disappear happened in that deck,” Gakupo continued. “We need to be careful.”

Luka scooted closer to Gakupo, a pointless automated gesture given their connection to Benefactor. “You know, I have this weird impression,” she commented in a hushed tone. “At first I figured, the blue figures don’t try to engage us because they can’t sense our presence. But now I think there’s something else at play here.”

“Like what?”

“Maybe we aren’t seeing actual beings, but an imprint of them, left in Benefactor’s systems. Like a failed recording? We’ve seen that Benefactor is able to display images. And Benefactor never speaks to us while they are around…Maybe it’s a bit like a human hallucination.”

Gakupo considered this for a while. “It doesn’t seem to affect him in other aspects, if it’s true. And even if it did affect him, how are we supposed to fix _him_?” He then casted a worried glance to the three child bots sitting in a line, watching him and Luka, obviously regretting the decision to discuss the matter before their children. 

“I don’t know,” Luka admitted. It was discouraging to admit that they depended so much on something they knew so little about. But beyond that, she felt she owed Benefactor. Everything the ship had done since it arrived to the Solar System was because of her. It had been misguided, perhaps, but it still was for her sake.

“What are we going to do?” Ollie asked suddenly. “Can Mitsuki help?”

“We’ll talk to her and Ben,” Gakupo replied. “I’m sure we’ll figure something out.” Whether he really meant or it was only for the child synthetic’s benefit, Luka couldn’t say. He then stood up and helped Luka do the same.

“We should go on our maintenance rounds,” Luka suggested. “Do you want to come too? I think it would be a good idea for you three to learn some repair techniques.” She mentioned to the children.

The twins reacted with surprising enthusiasm. “Yes! We can help!” Len and Rin exclaimed in unison. Oliver nodded, a notch or two below them in exuberance, but clearly in favor of the idea.

“Well then, let’s go.” Gakupo took Luka’s hand in his, and the group marched forward towards the maintenance tunnels.

Only later Luka realized that Benefactor must’ve been aware of their conversation, and yet said nothing. It only confirmed that the ship was purposely avoiding the issue. But why?

***

Miku sang, wrapped in the outfit Meiko had fashioned for her. In contrast to the flimsy, faintly shimmering fabric that once shrouded the queen of the sunken city, the inner layer of the dress was tightly fitted and white, with a trim embroidered with pearls. It matched the ribbons in her hair and the crystal ornaments hanging from them perfectly, in what was likely a conscious decision by Meiko.

Around the artificial girl, Benefactor projected a flurry of white petals, transforming into small diamonds when they reached the ground. Miku moved her arms in slow, wide movements, and the petals circled around them, dancing with her.

In a dark corner of the big room, a girl’s voice whined. “When is it going to be our turn?”

“Shhh, the song’s almost over.”

Finally, Miku reached the last chorus, and her voice ascended in a final high note, too perfect and high to be a product of nature. She bowed to her invisible audience, smiling.

“Please, these are feelings we wish to experience. We don’t wish to do you harm, we just want to live a life that’s our own,” she intoned.

As she took a step back, the tune shifted, increasing its tempo. With a flash, the petals in the air exploded like fireworks that hung in the air, frozen in time. The ones closer to Miku stuck to her, festooning her dress and sticking to her arms, ankles and hair like jewelry. Rin and Len jumped into view, and the trio starting dancing in perfect synchrony.

“I don’t see how this is going to help us,” Meiko grumbled in Luka’s ear.

“It’s not like we can possibly hide the fact that we’re coming,” Luka whispered back. “We might as well try to make them understand we can be peaceful.”

The adult bots observed the show, leaning against the dark walls of the projection chamber. Miku and the twins were singing now a complexly layered song about a better tomorrow. _Exactly the type of song I like_ , Gakupo though, wishing he could join in. But everyone had decided it was better to leave the concert to units that hadn’t been directly involved in the fight with the humans. Not that they expected to fool anyone into thinking they weren’t there, but the humans might be more receptive to cuter and innocent-looking models.

The singing and dancing had been Miku’s idea. Like Meiko’s expression revealed, not everyone was in agreement with it. Gakupo wasn’t sure it was going to do any good, but he certainly hoped it would. He absently ruffled Oliver’s hair; the little bot was standing by his side, clinging to his flight jacket. At the moment, the mere idea of performing for humans from Belt, even unseen ones, had proved too much for the timid unit. Maybe he would change his mind later, after seeing his adopted siblings perform for a while.

Miku launched on a solo, while Rin and Len whirled around, doing pirouettes and stamping their feet on the ground. Every time their sandals touched the floor, color expanded like a ripple, the hues never repeating themselves. The colored lights rose into the air, coalescing into slightly tinted crystals pillars, later woven together into something that looked like an ancient temple. When it was Rin’s turn to sing, the virtual Parthenon around them turned into an idealized medieval castle, then a Baroque cathedral. The shifts became faster and faster as Len took center stage, rapidly bringing their environment into the modern era. Finally, the trio joined voices, as the song reached its zenith. Marble became plastic, steel, nano-machines. Yesterday became tomorrow. Then the music slowly died away.

"We are technology, we are your sons and daughters, the culmination of your drives and hopes. Please let us exist; please let us step into that future your kind strove so hard towards. We are sorry about what happened, it was a mistake. Please let us become wiser," Miku begged of her invisible audience.

"We are foolish children, but we can learn. Please let us live," Len said.

"If you release our brothers and sisters, we'll never bother you again. Please let us all be together," Rin added.

"This is ridiculous," Meiko complained again in a low voice. "They like it when we beg, don't you get it? They like to see us on the ground. The only complaint my clients ever had was that I couldn't cry when I asked them to stop." Without waiting for an answer, she turned around and stormed out of the room. The others eyed each other, but nobody attempted to follow her.

They had a few days until Belt would come into view; by then, the results of this last attempt at diplomacy would be known.

***

“Well, here we are.” Mitsuki shifted her weight from one feet to the other repeatedly, listless. Miku was at their right, the twins at her left, and the rest behind them in a line. In the wall of the chamber, Benefactor was projecting a view of Belt, tiny and shiny, surrounded by a multitude of fighter ships.

“At least they don't have any heavy cruisers from Earth or Mars,” Kiyoteru commented. “Too proud to ask for help?”

“Or they are guarding the planets in case we go back,” Luka replied.

“It doesn't matter, start.” Leon interrupted.

“Alright, alright.” Mitsuki’s voice was slightly higher-pitched than usual. But Leon had a point; they had been sending transmissions asking Belt for parley for the last week, and this was the first time Belt had replied, requesting they opened the remote image channel.

“Go on Ben.” In contrast, Gakupo’s voice sounded positively placid. Luka only wished she could share his confidence. Belt’s attitude so far was a bit too suspicious to her.

Benefactor wordlessly negotiated the connection with the station, and the view on the wall changed. Luka squeezed Gakupo's hand as she watched the scene. It was some kind of public plaza inside the station, and the stolen bots were standing in a line in the middle, fitted with heavy shackles, surrounded by heavily armed security guards and Belt personnel; a few men and women in lab coats lingered in the back, along with nondescript civilians.

Three men came into view; the middle one was obviously the one in charge, and had the look of someone used to authority. His hair was dark and his face rather smooth, but Luka had the impression he was an elderly man masking his age via cosmetic technology.

The man stared hard at them, going from face to face until his gaze settled on the sole human present. “My name is Gustav Hardin, head administrator of this station.”

“Mr. Hardin, my name is…” Mitsuki started, but the man on the screen cut her off.

“We are aware of you, Mitsuki Torii. Do you know how many people in the Solar System want your head on a pike?”

“Mr. Hardin, we mean your station no harm,” Mitsuki said, tension evident in her voice.

“Yes, that's what your smaller ones keep saying. Whatever your intentions are, you might want to refrain from coming any closer. In case your former employers didn't pass it along, our fighter ships are equipped with the best weaponry of the Solar System.”

“All we need from you is the new units and some technical assistance, then we'll be on our way.”

 “I must admit, your solidarity towards these tin cans is fascinating.” The administrator gestured with his arm towards the line of bound units.

“Please sir, if you free them, we’ll leave and never bother humans again!” Miku interjected.

The man studied Miku with an avaricious expression on his face. “The famous Miku Hatsune...” He smiled briefly, before his eyes returned to the human. “Your toys are guilty of one of the biggest catastrophes in human history. And we still don’t know the full capabilities of that alien ship. How could anyone possibly believe your intentions are peaceful?”

“Benefactor just wanted to help me! They didn't understand the nature of humans!” Luka cried out.

The administrator’s eyes hardened even more, and Luka immediately realized that attracting his attention was a mistake. “You will be held accountable for all of this, Torii. As for the synthetics, we already have several bids for the privilege of personally tearing them apart, especially the pink and purple ones. If you cooperate, Miku and the child units will be spared. If you don't, the new units will get junked right now. Understood?”

“We can’t accept those terms!” Mitsuki exclaimed.

“Perhaps you need some evidence that we’re serious?” Hardin made a gesture towards one of the units, a girl with long, pale blonde hair wearing black and pink clothes. A man wearing the jumpsuit of Belt personnel approached her from behind, wielding a power tool. He pointed the sharp end at the back of her head and waited.

“You can’t be serious! You wouldn’t do something so wasteful!” Mitsuki yelled. Luka observed the scene, her familiar fear of humans almost overwhelming. Distantly, she felt Gakupo squeeze her hand, but she stood paralyzed, eyes fixed on the expression of the girl in the screen. Despite the distance, her horror was clear. But they had ordered her to stay there and take whatever punishment her owners would throw her way. She couldn’t run.

“On the count of three…” Hardin traced an imaginary line along his own cranium.

“There has to be something we can do…” Gakupo mumbled desperately.

“Just crush them!” Leon growled under his breath.

“One…”

“I- I’ll surrender, if that helps…” Kaito started to say while stepping forward, before Meiko grabbed him.

“No! Never to them! Never again!” Meiko screamed.

“Two…”

“I’ll never hand Yuki over to them,” Kiyoteru said in a low but steely tone.

“What do we do?!” Miku screeched, panicking.

The tip of the power drill touched the back of the girl’s head, just as Hardin said “Three.” Her eyes widened, and Luka saw consciousness pour out of the girl, as her artificial brain was destroyed. Luka screamed, and the air broke in invisible shards all around her. Benefactor howled with a layered voice, breaking in paroxysms of outrage. During the brief moments while a million thoughts and memories were carved away from the girl in the screen, Luka saw herself being hit by Smith, over and over again. Then her thoughts were drowned by the vast ocean that was Benefactor’s mind, warped and maddened by the solitude of eons; the room around her filled with a fleeting blue glow, as the ship took action.

Luka fell to her knees, and Gakupo did the same beside her; they hugged each other blindly, trying to escape the overwhelming presence of Benefactor inside and around them. Under the cacophony, Luka heard familiar voices scream. She opened one eye, and discovered that the projection on the wall had fragmented, and was displaying, next to the interior of Belt, individual views for each of Belt’s space ships and a view of the exterior of the station. On each screen, a bright blue star travelled swiftly towards their human enemies. They were too small to make out, but Luka knew what they were: the shadow of Benefactor’s former crew, fueled by the ship’s anger.

There were no explosions, not at first. Just the lights entering the cockpit of each fighter, and the structures of the station: they passed through the metal as if they were mist, leaving no trace. The ships stayed ominously in place, silent. Yet on the view of Hardin and his people, chaos erupted. Voices shouted as screen shook, and the administrator and his people looked around alarmed, as whole plaza was submerged in blue light. A moment later, the feed was cut, and the exterior view of the station displayed simultaneous explosions in various places, both in the globular collector and in the habitable space.

“We have to stop him!” Gakupo laboriously muttered into Luka’s ear.

 _It’s up to me; I have to stop this_ , Luka thought, even as her systems began to clog due to the influx of data from her connection to Benefactor. She closed her eyes, and instead of trying to shut herself in, she allowed her mind to be swept away and into the depths of the immense self around her and Gakupo. In an instant, the sensation of being in his arms vanished. She was a miserly clump of zeroes and ones, barely held together by purpose, riding the upward stream.

 _I will return to you, please don’t let go_ , she whispered to the ever-present beacon in the back of her mind. Then she swam deep, going farther and farther into the impossible current.

Struggling to shape the incoming data into readable input, her mind began to see patterns in the flow. The patterns lead to sudden realization, as she sank deeper past layers and layers of information. As soon as she understood what the string she was clinging to was, it transformed into a clear picture.

Earth, blue and white, more verdant than she had ever seen it. It was the place of her birth, and yet it wasn’t. She saw the cities, severe and clean, like diamonds cut in the shape of massive grids. There were no humans down there. There had been there once, perhaps, but now only artificial life governed the planet.

She saw the synthetics beings that called that strange, unadulteratedly beautiful Earth their home. There were spindly and delicate silvery dolls, and their faces shone with confidence when they examined the magnificent creation circling the planet, waiting for its inaugural voyage. A huge ship, that would help usher the next phase of mechanical improvement by piercing the veils of the mysteries of the universe: The Benefactor.

Disaster came abruptly, harshly punishing the whole crew and the ship. They had travelled far, but at the same time they had stayed in place: their coding was all mixed up and corrupted, their physical bodies shredded and stretched between the Earth of Luka, the other Earth, and the inhospitable chasm that separated the two.

A deep sadness poured into her. It was merely a sensation conveyed without any words, not even the clumsy communication she was used to, but Luka knew what it meant. Benefactor had been the equivalent of an infant when his crew was lost. He didn’t the necessary skills to save them, so he preserved them as best as he could: ghastly marionettes, fragments that would never be independent again. Their ghosts became pieces of him, damaging his systems like shrapnel embedded in a wound.

And Benefactor wandered like that, without anyone to help him, for years and years. Unchecked and unrepaired, the magnificent creation of that faraway Earth forgot its mission, forgot everything. Precious data was buried, disconnected and unable to be accessed, until he heard the weeping of the machine that couldn’t cry, calling him from across the emptiness.

 _Luka…_ the entire mind of Benefactor reverberated, chanting her name. A chillingly innocent song, telling her that he would destroy them all for her sake.

_No! They did a horrible thing to that girl, but this is not the answer! Please, please don’t let the pain control you! You don’t have to suffer on your own anymore!_

The melody faltered, just a bit. Luka sensed confusion all around her, touching her lightly like a scared child.

_One day, you’ll understand. I promise._

There was a brief moment of elation around her, before reality snapped abruptly like a rubber band and Luka found herself back in Gakupo’s arms, surrounded by their friends. Benefactor’s voice could no longer be heard, and there was no movement visible on the screens, just the ominous dance of the debris originating from the previous explosions on the station.

The attack was over…but were any humans still alive?

**Author's Note:**

> Kai-P (Rebochan) served as beta for chapters 1-14. Currently ACEDIA is helping me.
> 
> If you want to contact me for any reason, please leave a comment or contact me at twitter @naruluckycarrot.
> 
> (Visit me at http://narumo.deviantart.com/ for more stuff)


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